MOSCOW, August 21 (RAPSI) – Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky District Court has issued an order allowing opposition activist Alexei Navalny who remains under house arrest in Yves Rocher case to communicate with co-defendants in other criminal cases he faces charges, RAPSI reports Thursday from the courtroom.

Navalny and his brother Oleg stand accused in a fraud case involving cosmetics company Yves Rocher Vostok. Investigators allege that the Navalny brothers embezzled upwards of 26 million rubles ($717,792) from the cosmetics company, as well as upwards of 4 million rubles ($110,430) from the Multidisciplinary Processing Company by way of a fraud scheme. The brothers were further charged with having laundered 21 million rubles. The brothers pleaded not guilty on August 14.

Alexei Navalny has been under a house arrest since March 28. He was prohibited from using the Internet and allowed to communicate only with the investigator, representatives of the Federal Service for Execution of Punishment, his attorneys and members of his family.

Navalny has already been given a suspended sentence of five years for the embezzlement of funds owned by Kirovles company.

Earlier this week he was ordered to pay 600,200 rubles (about $17,000) in compensation to the city's Deputy Mayor Maxim Liksutov who claimed to be defamed. Navalny wrote in his blog that Liksutov and his wife owned assets abroad and concealed the fact in violation of the federal law.