MOSCOW, March 5 (RAPSI) – The Moscow Zamoskvoretsky District Court has adjourned the hearings on the petition of Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny seeking to lift the seizure of his bank accounts and securities effected five years ago in the framework of a criminal case regarding the embezzlement of Yves Rocher company funds, RAPSI correspondent reports from the courtroom.

This February, the court received the petition to withdraw the attachment of securities and bank accounts blocked by the Moscow Basmanny District Court’s decision of November 12, 2013.

Initially, the court was ready to examine the petition on March 5; however, the hearings were adjourned until March 29 on the demand of the prosecution.

In December 2014, Navalny was given a 3.5-year suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher case. His brother Oleg received a 3.5-year prison term. They were convicted of stealing nearly 30 million rubles (about $500,000 at the current exchange rate) from two companies, including Russian affiliate of Yves Rocher.

In October 2017, the European Court of Human Rights held that there was violation of Article 6 (Right to a fair trial) and Article 7 (No punishment without law) of the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention) in this case.

However, the ECHR refused to recognize criminal prosecution of the brothers as politically motivated by declaring their complaints “under Article 18 in conjunction with Articles 6 and 7 of the Convention inadmissible”. The court ordered Russia to pay €55,000 to Alexey Navalny in compensation. Oleg Navalny was awarded about €21,000 and 460,000 rubles. Both parties appealed the ECHR ruling. However, in March 2018, the court refused to send the case to the Grand Chamber for review.

The Supreme Court’s Presidium in April 2018 upheld the sentence given to the brothers.

It should be noted that Navalny was many times held administratively liable for breaking the established order of conducting rallies and nine times fined for noncompliance with court rulings demanding him to withdraw inaccurate information.