MOSCOW, April 20 (RAPSI, Alexei Afonsky) – Yekaterina Tyurina who was arrested in Italy on fraud charges filed a defamation suit against Russian authorities and Aram Gabrelyanovs' holding company, News Media, seeking 3 million rubles ($590,000) in damages, RAPSI reported on Monday from the courtroom.

In October 2014, News Media’s TV channel Lifenews reported that Russian national Tyurina, who allegedly had been detained in Italy upon the request of Russian authorities, was arrested in Austria.

Tyurina’s attorney said that following a brief arrest, she was released from detention on written recognizance not to leave, first in Trieste and then in Milan, and that she had not left Italy for Austria, where she was allegedly detained as reported by Lifenews.

Tyurina said this information had smeared her reputation and demanded that Lifenews publish a retraction on its website and pay her 3 million rubles ($590,000) in compensation, to be provided proportionately by the three defendants. The other two defendants are the Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor General’s Office, which were mentioned as the sources of the defamatory information.

Tyurina, 38, who was born in Moscow and who was permanently residing in the Czech Republic, was arrested last August in the town of Lignano Sabbiadoro in the province of Friuli-Venezia Giulia in northeastern Italy. She was reportedly arrested after arriving at a local seaside resort where she planned to vacation with her family.

A court in Trieste was to decide the issue of her extradition to Russia. Tyurina’s attorney said the court ultimately ruled against extradition.

Tyurina faces embezzlement charges in a case involving 82 million rubles ($1.6 million) in Russia. From November 2005 until April 2006, she and several other suspects used forged documents to obtain state benefits against a pledge of property that did not belong to them. These alleged actions inflicted substantial financial losses on the shareholders of an unidentified company.

The warrant for her arrest was issued in March 2014 by Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court.