Merkacheva's voice was ignored. Ryazan Yabloko leader Konstantin Smirnov was left in pretrial detention.

The Soviet District Court today remanded the leader of the Ryazan Yabloko party, former deputy of the Dubrovichi rural settlement, and editor of the online newspaper "Vid sboka" (Side View) in pretrial detention for another two months. Konstantin Smirnov. 

Smirnov has repeatedly requested that his pretrial detention be changed to house arrest due to health issues. A similar request was submitted to the court the day before by a member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights. Eva Mercacheva.

"The measure of pretrial detention for a journalist who is not accused of a violent crime seems overly harsh and excessive. I can guarantee he won't abscond or violate the restrictions."- says in her address. 

Previously, a similar request was made to the court. Grigory Yavlinsky, chairman of Yabloko Nikolay Rybakov, representatives of public communities, 20 journalists. However, the judge Yuri Tyurin left Smirnova is in custody until January 30, although the prosecution's arguments looked untenable. 

Smirnov is charged with extortion on an especially large scale. He allegedly demanded money from the (now former) director of the Capital Repairs Fund. Alexey Rogotovsky to stop defamatory publications. The former editor pleaded not guilty. 

Smirnov was detained amid a campaign against municipal reform. The first toThey spoke out against the reforms residents of the Dubrovichi rural settlement, where Smirnov was a deputy. Residents of other rural settlements followed suit. Smirnov attended the meetings and covered the protests in his publication. Protests against the dissolution of rural settlements and their consolidation into districts swept across the country, but were harshly suppressed. For example, the leader of the Altai protest Arun Arna added to the list "extremists and terrorists" were recently charged with terrorism and arrested. 

Photo: "Side view"