MOSCOW, June 19 (RAPSI) – Sergei Maksimov, who was charged by German  prosecutors with hacking Alexey Navalny’s email and Twitter accounts in June 2012, could face up to two years in prison, RIA Novosti reported on Friday, citing an official of the District Court of Bonn.

The alleged hacker’s trial is scheduled for June 24.

According to the media, Sergei Maksimov, 41, a German citizen, allegedly claims to be Hacker Hell who presumably hacked about 100 emails, including the emails of opposition politician Alexei Navalny. After the hacker published Navalny’s correspondence with Kirov Region governor Nikita Belykh in the summer of 2012, Navalny was charged with various economic crimes.

Navalny said in his blog that the Bonn prosecutor’s office opened a case against Maksimov after he and his supporters had informed the German law enforcement authorities about the hacking. According to Navalny, German police searched Maksimov’s apartment in 2013, where they allegedly seized a computer and discs and other data storage devices that were signed “Hacker Hell” and contained Navalny’s emails.

However, the owner of a Twitter account that belongs to “Hacker Hell” has written that he and Maksimov are two different people. The account owner said he knew Maksimov, who allegedly told him in 2013 that he was being investigated by the Germans at Navalny’s request.

Alexei Navalny is a Russian political and public figure, leader of the Party of Progress. He ran for Moscow mayor and is the author of one of the most popular political blogs that was banned for promoting unauthorized public protests. He has already been given two suspended sentences for embezzlement – five years in the Kirovles case and 3.5 years in the recent Yves Rocher Vostok case.