The lawyer for a Ukrainian journalist held in Moscow on charges of espionage says he was briefly prevented from leaving Russia.
Attorney Mark Feigin says Russian border guards at a Moscow airport refused to allow him to board a flight to Vilnius on October 13, saying he was banned from leaving Russia under a request by the Federal Bailiff Service.
Feigin initially said he thought the ban was linked to his professional activities. But Feigin said later on his Twitter account that he was informed by the Federal Bailiff Service that the travel ban was the result of a technical error in its computer database.
Feigin is currently defending journalist Roman Sushchenko, a Paris-based correspondent from Ukraine's Ukrinform news agency who was detained in Moscow for allegedly collecting classified information.
Sushchenko was formally charged with espionage on October 7.
Feigin has also defended other high-profile clients at trials in Russia -- including Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko, members of the protest art collective Pussy Riot, and Crimean Tatars jailed in Russia on terrorism charges after Moscow's seizure and annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
