WARSAW - Two Polish men suspected of attacking an exiled aide of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have been released on bail from detention in Poland, a lawyer for one of them said on Oct 17.

       The former aide, Mr Leonid Volkov, suffered injuries from hammer blows during the attack on March 12 outside his home in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital. Two men suspected of attacking him were arrested in Poland in April on a European Arrest Warrant issued by Lithuania.

       Last week, a court in Warsaw ruled that they may be released after paying 50,000 zlotys (S$16,500) bail each.

       “The court also imposed police surveillance on them – three times a week – banned them from leaving the country and impounded their passports,” lawyer Piotr Jaszke, told Reuters.

       In June, a Polish court ruled that the men could not be extradited to Lithuania, as Polish prosecutors were conducting wider proceedings against them.

       Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, died in February after collapsing at the Arctic penal colony where he was serving a long jail term. REUTERS