MOSCOW (AP) – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is facing a court hearing on Tuesday that could end in him being jailed for years and sparking more protests against the Kremlin.
The 44-year-old Navalny, a corruption investigator who is the main critic of President Vladimir Putin, was arrested on January 17 when he returned from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning that he blames. the Kremlin. Russian authorities deny the charge and claim, despite tests by several European laboratories, that they have no evidence that he was poisoned.
The Russian prison service alleges that Navalny violated the probation conditions of his suspended sentence from a conviction of money laundering in 2014 that motivated him as a politician. It has asked the Simonovsky District Court in Moscow to convert his suspended sentence of 3 1/2 years into one he is due to serve in prison.
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 on Tuesday. “What else could I do?”
Navalny’s imprisonment 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 detained more than 5,750 people during Sunday’s rallies, including more than 1,900 in Moscow, the largest number the country has seen since Soviet times. Most were released after being summoned to court, and fined seven to 15 days in prison. Several people are facing charges of alleged violence against the police.
Navalny’s team called for another protest outside the courthouse in Moscow on Tuesday, but police were on hand and cordoned off the nearby streets and arrested them at random. According to the OVD-Info group that monitors arrests, more than 230 people have been detained.
Some Navalny supporters still managed to approach the courthouse. 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.
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 property mentioned in the video, and his longtime confidante, building magnate Arkady Rotenberg, claimed he owned it.
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, with Western officials demanding his release and condemning the arrests of protesters.
“Sweden and the EU are concerned about the situation with democracy, civil society and human rights in Russia,” said Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde, the current chair of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. in Moscow.
The diplomat said the poisoning of Navalny and the reaction by Russian authorities to the street protests would be part of the discussion.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who is due to visit Moscow later this week, has criticized the detention and excessive use of force against protesters, stressing that Russia must honor its international human rights record.
Russia has rejected criticism from US and EU officials as interfering in its internal affairs, saying Navalny’s current situation is a procedural matter for the court and not a matter for the government.
More than a dozen Western diplomats attended the court hearing on Tuesday, and Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused their presence of being part of the West’s efforts to contain Russia, adding that an attempt may be to exert ‘psychological pressure’ on the judge.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Russia was ready for dialogue on Navalny, but strongly warned 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.