The Investigative Committee ordered its Krasnodar regional branch on Monday to reconsider the January arrest of former police Major Alexei Dymovsky, who is being investigated on suspicion of abuse of office.
Two months ago, committee officials asked a court to arrest Dymovsky — who became a public figure last November after making a YouTube appeal to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to deal with police corruption —because he was accused of a serious crime, has no permanent job or residential registration and has threatened investigators. The original video is embedded below.
Dymovsky was fired late last year — after appealing to Putin — on suspicion of misappropriating $900 that was earmarked for police informers during his time in service.
The committee said in a statement that public and media reaction were among the factors behind the decision to reconsider Dymovsky’s arrest.
Human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov said he alone had written two letters to Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin asking him to send investigators to the Krasnoyarsk region to look into Dymovsky's case.
Ponomaryov added that the case had gained new prominence after an attack Saturday against Vadim Karastelyov, Dymovsky’s public defender and a Krasnodar human rights activist.
Karastelyov was badly beaten a day after being released from weeklong detention. He had been detained for trying to organize a rally in support of Dymovsky without getting permission from the local authorities.
Krasnodar police detained on Sunday one of the two men suspected of attacking Karastelyov, Interfax reported.