Two men accused of attacking Navalny aide may be released on bail, Polish court rules

Two men accused of attacking Navalny aide may be released on bail, Polish court rules

Two men suspected of attacking Leonid Volkov, an exiled aide to late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, may be released on bail from detention in Poland, a court has ruled, a lawyer for one of them said on Thursday.

Volkov suffered injuries from hammer blows in the attack on March 12 outside his home in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital. Two men suspected of attacking him were arrested in Poland in April on a European Arrest Warrant issued by Lithuania.

"Each must pay 50,000 zlotys ($12,700) bail within a week... If they pay, they will be released, if they don't pay, they won't be released," Piotr Jaszke, the lawyer of one of the suspects told Reuters.

He added that the suspects may apply for an extension to make the payments on the Oct. 16 deadline.

In June, a Polish court ruled that the men could not be extradited to Lithuania as there were wider proceedings against them being conducted by Polish prosecutors.

Last month the National Prosecutors' Office said a Russian citizen suspected of directing the beating of Volkov was arrested in Poland, adding that there were eight suspects in the investigation, four of whom were under temporary arrest.

Navalny, Russia's most prominent opposition leader, died in February after collapsing at the Arctic penal colony where he was serving a long jail term.