MOSCOW. Feb 11 (Interfax) - Investigators have charged Lyobov Sobol, a lawyer for the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), which is recognized as a foreign agent in Russia, in a case concerning a violation of the inviolability of the home.
"Today, Sobol was charged with a crime envisaged by Part 2 of Article 139 of the Russian Criminal Code (breaching the inviolability of the home using violence or a threat to use violence)," a statement posted on her Twitter account on Thursday said.
On December 21, 2020, a group of persons, "including Sobol, repeatedly tried to break into the apartment of an elderly woman in a building located in the Eastern [Administrative] District of the capital, unlawfully using the uniforms of [Russian health watchdog] Rospotrebnadzor employees," spokesperson for the Moscow branch of the Russian Investigative Committee Yulia Ivanova said.
"After two futile attempts, Sobol deceived a delivery service courier, introducing herself as 'an abandoned wife with a small child' and got past the front door of the residential building," Ivanova said.
After the apartment owner opened the door, "Sobol pushed the woman away and broke into the apartment, where the latter resides with her family," she said.
"Having walked around all the rooms while recording her unlawful actions with her phone, Sobol left the dwelling and fled the crime scene," Ivanova said.
The penalty on these charges carries up to two years of imprisonment.