MOSCOW (AP) – Europe’s leading human rights court has ordered Russia’s release from prison, opposition leader Alexei Navalny, a ruling quickly rejected by Russian authorities on Wednesday, is set to become the main enemy of Russia. To isolate the Kremlin.
The ruling of the European Court of Human Rights demanded that Russia immediately release Navalny and warned that this would not be a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Russian justice minister dismissed the court’s claim as ‘unfounded and illegal’ and the Foreign Ministry denounced it as part of Western interference in the country’s domestic affairs.
Navalny, 44, a corruption investigator and the main critic of President Vladimir Putin, was arrested last month after returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning. he blames the Kremlin. Russian authorities have denied the allegations.
Earlier this month, a Moscow court sentenced Navalny to two years and eight months in prison for violating his terms while recovering in Germany. The sentence stems from a conviction in 2014 that Navalny rejected as fabrication and that the European Court found it illegal.
In its ruling on Tuesday, the ECHR referred to Article 39 of its regulations and obliged the Russian government to release Navalny, citing “the nature and extent of the risk to the applicant’s life.”
“This measure applies immediately,” the Strasbourg court said in a statement.
The court noted that Navalny disputed the Russian authorities’ claim that they had taken adequate measures to protect his life and well-being in custody after the attack on the nerve agent.
Russian Justice Minister Konstantin Chuichenko has rejected the court’s ruling as a “clear and gross interference” in Russia’s justice system.
“This claim is unfounded and illegal because it does not indicate a single fact or a legal norm that will enable the court to make such a ruling,” Chuichenko said in a statement from Russian news agencies. “This demand cannot be met because there is no legal reason for the person to be released from custody under Russian law. The European judges are well aware that they have clearly made a political decision that could only aggravate the restoration of constructive relations with the institutions of the Council of Europe. ”
In the past, Moscow has heeded the rulings of the ECHR awarding compensation to Russian citizens who have challenged rulings in Russian courts, but the European court has never released the conviction.
In reflection of its provocative irritation with the European Court’s ruling, Russia last year adopted a constitutional amendment declaring the priority of national legislation over international law. Russian authorities can now use the provision to reject the ruling of the ECHR.
Mikhail Yemelyanov, a deputy head of the legal commission in the Kremlin-controlled lower house, pointed to the constitutional change and pointed out that it gives Russia the right to ignore the ruling of the ECHR, according to the news agency Interfax.
But Navalny’s chief strategist Leonid Volkov argued that Russia’s membership in the Council of Europe obliges him to abide by the court’s decision. He warned on Facebook that the country runs the risk of losing its membership of the largest human rights organization on the continent if it does not comply with the order.
Navalny’s arrest and imprisonment sparked a spate of protests across Russia. Authorities responded with extensive repression, arresting about 11,000 people, many of whom were fined or sentenced to seven to 15 days in prison.
Russia has rejected Western criticism of Navalny’s arrest and the protests as interference in its internal affairs.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has condemned the ECHR ruling in a televised speech as a blow to international law and part of a campaign to put pressure on our country and our country’s internal affairs. to interfere ‘.
A court hearing on Navalny’s appeal of his sentence is scheduled for Saturday.
He also faced court proceedings in a separate case on charges of defamation of a World War II veteran. Navalny, who calls the 94-year-old veteran and other people who appear in a pro-Kremlin video “corrupt stooges”, “people without conscience” and “traitors”, dismissed the defamation charges and described them as part of the official attempts to disrespect him.
With his usual sardonic humor, Navalny compared his conditions in the Matrosskaya Tishina prison with maximum security in Moscow to the isolation of a space traveler.
“People in uniforms who come to me say only a few formulaic sentences, a light indicating that a working video camera is seen on their breasts – it looks just like androids,” he said in comments on Instagram. ‘And just like in a movie about space travel, the ship’s command center communicates with me. A voice from the intercom would say: ‘3-0-2, get ready for sanitary treatment. “And I would answer, ‘OK, just give me ten minutes to finish my tea.’ ‘