His lawyers’ appeals were rejected.

On Wednesday the Moscow City Court did not uphold either of the two appeals submitted by Vasily Aleksanyan’s lawyers. One contested the deadline of 15 January 2008, by which he must complete his familiarisation with the documentation in the case file.

“We were asking for a postponement of that deadline until after Vasily Aleksanyan had completed his course of treatment. Then he would himself be able to stand up for his rights in court,” said Yelena Lvova. However, the Moscow City Court did not uphold Aleksanyan’s appeal against the 19 October decision of the Basmanny district court.

The second appeal concerned the failure of prosecutor Loginov to reduce Aleksanyan’s measure of restraint from detention to bail. Though Loginov had himself issued a decree, specifying just such a proposal on 29 October 2007, for the period of one month he failed to implement the decree. On 2 November the Basmanny district court placed the decision on such a matter in the hands of the prosecutor. The latter then applied to the court to extend Aleksanyan’s detention in custody.

On the day that the Basmanny court was due to examine a complaint about the prosecutor’s failure to implement his own decree, it became known that Loginov’s decision had been had annulled. Yet the Criminal-Procedural Code does not permit Loginov’s superiors to withdraw his decree, comments Yelena Lvova. “I stated today that the decree had been withdrawn by someone unauthorised to do so, and that this could in no way influence a decision as to whether the inactivity of the prosecutor was lawful or not.”

The Moscow City Court also declined this appeal. Aleksanyan’s lawyer Yelena Lvova described today’s judicial decisions as unlawful and unfounded. Aleksanyan will be told the results of the court hearings tomorrow when his lawyers visit him in hospital.