The Qualification Board of Judges of Moscow approved the resignation of the judge of the Basmanny District Court, Natalia Dudar, effective March 31, reported 'Mediazona'**.
The 50-year-old Dudar was a criminal case judge in the Basmanny Court since October 1999. She became known for handling many high-profile political cases and making decisions to arrest the accused in such cases, which led to her being included in the sanction lists of the UK and the EU.
In the 2000s, Dudar made decisions to arrest the defendants in the Yukos case, Platon Lebedev and Vasily Aleksanyan, who was terminally ill. After the protests on Bolotnaya Square, Dudar imposed and extended preventive measures on 13 defendants in the 'Bolotnaya case'.
Among those whom Dudar ordered to be sent to pre-trial detention were director Kirill Serebrennikov and other defendants in the 'Seventh Studio' case, co-chairman of the 'Golos'** movement Grigory Melkonyants, politicians Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin. Additionally, she judged Alexei and Oleg Navalny in the 'Yves Rocher' case and sentenced activist Ildar Dadin, which was later overturned by the Constitutional Court.
Besides this, Dudar considered other investigators' petitions: she sanctioned searches of FBK*** employees and Alexei Navalny's*** headquarters, and also allowed the wiretapping of the opposition leader's associates.
* Included in the list of 'terrorists and extremists'.
** Recognized in Russia as 'foreign agents'.
*** Recognized in Russia as an 'extremist' organization.