MOSCOW, October 18 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court has upheld the ruling to launch the defamation case against Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny, RAPSI reported from the courtroom on Tuesday.

Earlier Navalny’s lawyer Vadim Kobzev has filed an appeal with Lyublinsky District Court of Moscow against initiation of the criminal case against Navalny. In the appeal Kobzev notes that investigators did not list signs of a crime and the circumstances of its alleged perpetration. In particular, in the appealed inquiry there are no titles of media that have allegedly distributed defamatory information. There are also no references to specific publications with quotes from Navalny. Kobzev also notes that the investigator has not filed a separate case against the unidentified persons who are mentioned in the May 17, 2016 inquiry.

On July 26, the Lyublinsky District Court of Moscow upheld launch of the criminal case.

On July 21, the Moscow City Court dismissed appeals filed by Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny over the personal searches as well as apartment searches in the criminal case over defamation against investigator Pavel Karpov.

Searches were conducted in accordance with the ruling that was issued by the Lyublinsky District Court on May 30.

A criminal case against Navalny has been launched following the petition filed by Karpov.

Karpov, who has been put on the sanctions list over Sergei Magnitsky’s case, turned to the police over some videos, which accused the former investigator of committing serious and extremely serious crimes including embezzlement, kidnapping, and murder of  Magnitsky, a lawyer for Hermitage Capital Management.

Magnitsky, who worked for Firestone Duncan and represented Hermitage Capital, was arrested after accusing Russian officials of a $230 million fraud and died in prison under suspicious circumstances.  He was posthumously found guilty of tax evasion by a Moscow court in July 2013.

According to Karpov, Navalny has regularly shared links to the videos created by Hermitage Capital Management CEO William Browder.

Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court has recognized information disclosed in these films as untrue and tarnishing honor and dignity, Karpov says.