MOSCOW (AP) – A Moscow court on Tuesday sentenced Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to more than 2 1/2 years in prison on charges of violating the terms of his probation while recovering from poisoning in Germany. products. more protests are burning across the country.
Just before the verdict, Navalny, who is the most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, denounced the proceedings as a vain attempt by the Kremlin to scare millions of Russians into submitting them. His team called on Russians to withdraw immediately from protests in central Moscow.
The verdict comes despite massive protests over the past two weekends over Russia and Western calls to free the 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner.
The jail sentence stems from a 2014 conviction for embezzlement that Navalny rejected as fabricated and politically motivated.
Navalny was arrested on January 17 after returning from his five-month recovery in Germany from the attack, which he accused the Kremlin. Russian authorities deny any involvement. Despite tests by several European laboratories, Russian authorities said they had no evidence that he had been poisoned.
While reading the order, Navalny smiled and pointed to his wife Yulia in the courtroom and traced the outline of a heart in the glass cage where he was being held. “Everything will be fine,” he told her as the guards led him away.
Earlier in the proceedings, Navalny attributed his arrest to Putin’s “fear and hatred” and said that the Russian leader would go up in history as a poisoner.
“I deeply insulted him by simply surviving the assassination attempt he ordered,” he said.
“The purpose of the trial is to scare a large number of people,” Navalny added. “You can’t go to jail all over the country.”
The Russian prison service alleges Navalny violated the probation conditions of his suspended sentence of the 2014 conviction. It asked the Simonovsky District Court to convert his suspended sentence of 3 1/2 years into one he is due to serve in prison, although he has spent about a year of it under house arrest which will now be served as the time.
Navalny stressed that the European Court of Human Rights had ruled that his conviction was illegal in 2014 and that Russia had paid him compensation in accordance with the ruling.
Navalny and his lawyers argued that while recovering from the poisoning in Germany, he could not personally register with the Russian authorities as his probationary period required. Navalny also insisted that his rights were grossly violated during his arrest, describing his imprisonment as a folly of justice.
“I returned to Moscow after completing the course,” Navalny said during the trial. “What else could I do?”
Navalny’s jail has sparked massive protests across Russia over the past two weekends, with tens of thousands taking to the streets to demand release and sing slogans against Putin. Police on Sunday detained more than 5,750 people, including more than 1,900 in Moscow, the largest number the country has seen since Soviet times. Most were released after filing a subpoena and were fined or jailed from seven to 15 days. Several people are facing charges of alleged violence against the police.
“I am fighting and will continue to do so, although I am now in the hands of people who would like to place chemical weapons everywhere and no one will give three kopecks for my life,” Navalny said.
The Navalny team called for a protest outside the Moscow courthouse on Tuesday, but police were on hand, cordoning off nearby streets and making random arrests. According to the OVD-Info group that monitors arrests, more than 320 people have been detained.
Some Navalny supporters still managed to approach the building. A young woman climbs a large pile of snow across the street from the courthouse and holds up a poster with the words “Freedom to Navalny.” Less than a minute later, a police officer takes her away.
Hours before the verdict, authorities cordoned off Red Square and other parts of Moscow, as well as St. Petersburg Palace Square in anticipation of protests. Police flooded the centers of both cities.
In court, Navalny thanked protesters for their courage and urged other Russians not to fear repression.
“Millions cannot be sent to prison,” he said. ‘You stole people’s futures and are now trying to scare them off. I urge everyone not to be afraid. ‘
Observers have noted that authorities want Navalny in jail, fearing he could run an effective campaign against the main Kremlin party, United Russia, in the September parliamentary elections. “If Navalny remains free, he is absolutely capable of burying the Kremlin’s plans regarding the outcome of the Duma election,” said Abbas Gallyamov, a political analyst.
After his arrest, Navalny’s team released a two-hour YouTube video featuring a lavish Black Residence allegedly built for Putin. The video has been viewed more than 100 million times, fueling discontent while ordinary Russians struggle with an economic downturn, the coronavirus pandemic and widespread corruption during Putin’s tenure.
Putin insisted last week that neither he nor his family members own any of the properties mentioned in the video, and his longtime confidant, building magnate Arkady Rotenberg, claimed he owned them.
As part of efforts to disperse the protests, authorities targeted Navalny’s collaborators and activists across the country. His brother Oleg, best ally Lyubov Sobol and several others have been placed under house arrest for two months and are facing criminal charges of violating coronavirus restrictions.
Navalny’s imprisonment and the protests sparked international outrage.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has denounced Tuesday’s ruling.
“The United Kingdom is calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Alexei Navalny and all the peaceful protesters and journalists arrested over the past two weeks,” Raab said. “The perverse verdict of today, which is the victim of a poisoning rather than those responsible, shows that Russia is not fulfilling the most basic obligations expected of any responsible member of the international community.”
Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde, the current chair of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, visited Russia earlier on Tuesday and called on Russia to release Navalny and condemn the protests.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who will visit Moscow later this week, criticized the detention and excessive use of force against protesters, stressing that Russia must live up to its international commitments on human rights.
Russia has dismissed US and EU criticism as interfering in its internal affairs, saying Navalny’s current situation is a procedural issue for the court and not a matter for the government.
More than a dozen Western diplomats attended the trial, and Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said their presence was part of Western efforts to contain Russia, adding that an attempt may be to exert ‘psychological pressure’ on the judge.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was ready for dialogue on Navalny, but warned strongly that it would not take Western criticism into account.
“We are ready to patiently state everything, but we are not going to respond to or take into account mentoring-style statements,” Peskov said in a conference with reporters.
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Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.