MOSCOW. March 7 (Interfax) - Lawyers for Vladimir Anikeyev, the leader of the Shaltay-Boltay hacker group charged with illegal access to computer information, have appealed the extension of his arrest, lawyer Ruslan Koblev said.
"I have just appealed the Lefortovsky Court's resolution extending the defendant's arrest. We ask that the resolution be cancelled and no restrictive measures chosen for Anikeyev, as it is pointless in the current situation," Koblev said on Tuesday.
According to the law, the criminal case against Anikeyev should be completed on April 8, which is 30 days before the maximum possible arrest of six months, he said.
"So there are slightly more than 20 days left. And Anikeyev has more reasons to stay in Russia rather than to flee, because in cooperating with investigators, he can fully vindicate himself and enter the legal field," he said.
Anikeyev has not yet decided whether to conclude a plea agreement, Koblev said.
On March 3, the Lefortovsky District Court in Moscow extended Anikeyev's arrest for six months, until May 8.
The hacker group known as Shaltay-Boltay, or Anonymous International, became known several years ago. It intercepted emails and hacked accounts of high-ranking officials, large companies and media outlets and sold the data on the Internet.
It was reported earlier that Vladimir Anikeyev, a suspected organizer of the hacking group Shaltay-Boltay, and his two accomplices Konstantin Teplyakov and Alexander Filinov had been arrested in Moscow in November 2016.
All three were charged with unauthorized access to computer information committed by a group of persons by previous concert.
Anikeyev pleaded guilty, made a confession and started to cooperate with investigators, while Filinov said he had nothing to do with computer hacking due to his lack of such skills. Filinov said he had been slandered by Anikeyev in an attempt to improve his own position. Filinov was the only one who challenged his arrest, which, however, was pronounced legal by the Moscow City Court.
Another presumed Shaltay-Boltay member, Alexander Glazastikov, who is residing in Estonia, told the Dozhd TV channel in an interview that he considered it unlikely that Filinov was a hacker as he had never seen any mention of him in the group's internal documents.