Russian court extends house arrest of Novaya Gazeta journalist, who says he was rebuked for even answering door to police

A Moscow court has extended the house arrest of Novaya Gazeta journalist Oleg Roldugin until 10 November, as he awaits trial on charges of “illegally accessing computer information” as part of a group, the newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The Tverskoy District Court in Moscow ordered the extension after Roldugin and his lawyer, Marina Andreyeva, asked the judge to replace the house arrest with a less restrictive measure. During the hearing, the journalist described an incident in which he stepped into a shared vestibule in his apartment building to open the door for a Federal Penitentiary Service officer, who proceeded to tell him he was not permitted to do even that. Roldugin said he feared the episode could be logged against him as a violation of his house arrest conditions.

Roldugin was detained on 9 April. The same day, police carried out a raid of Novaya Gazeta’s Moscow office. Roldugin was jailed the following day pending trial on the illegal data access charges. On 2 June, he was transferred to house arrest.

The case marks the first known instance of Russian law enforcement applying personal data statutes to media workers in connection with reporting based on leaked information. The law had previously only been used against administrators of leak databases and security officials accused of leaking data.