Court Orders Seizure Of Navalny Brothers' Assets

Opposition leader Aleksei Navalny and his wife, Yulia, leave a court session in Kirov in mid-October.

A Moscow court has ordered the seizure of assets owned by outspoken Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny and his brother, Oleg.

A spokeswoman for a Moscow district court, Natalya Romanova, said the assets were ordered seized on November 12 as collateral in court cases the two brothers are currently facing.

Romanova said Oleg Navalny's assets ordered seized included shares and bank accounts. She provided no details of Aleksei Navalny's assets.

Last month, Russia's Investigative Committee launched probes into Aleksei and Oleg Navalny, accusing them of embezzlement and money laundering in an alleged scheme to defraud a Russian branch of cosmetics giant Yves Rocher.

In October, a Russian court upheld a 16 million ruble ($500,000) theft conviction against Navalny but handed him a five-year suspended sentence.

Based on reporting by Rapsinews.ru and Reuters