MOSCOW (AP) – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny faced a court hearing on Tuesday that could end with his imprisonment for years and fuel several protests against the Kremlin.
Navalny, 44, an anti-corruption investigator who is President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, was arrested on January 17 on his return from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nervous breakdown. the Kremlin blames her. The Russian authorities reject the accusation and claim, despite tests carried out by several European laboratories, that they have no evidence that he was poisoned.
Russia’s penitentiary service claims that Navalny violated the probation conditions of his suspended sentence from the 2014 money laundering conviction, which he rejected as politically motivated. He asked the Simonovsky District Court in Moscow to turn his 3-and-a-half-year suspended sentence into one he must serve in prison.
Navalny and his lawyers argued that while he was recovering in Germany after the poisoning, he could not personally register with the Russian authorities, as required by probation. Navalny also insisted that his legal rights had been grossly violated during his arrest and described his imprisonment as a forgery of justice.
“I returned to Moscow after finishing treatment,” Navalny said during Tuesday’s hearing. “What else could I have done?”
Navalny’s prison has sparked massive protests across Russia over the past two weekends, with tens of thousands taking to the streets to demand his release, chanting 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 nation has seen since Soviet times. Most were released after receiving a summons in court and face fines or imprisonment from seven to 15 days. Several people have faced criminal charges for alleged violence against police.
Navalny’s team called for another demonstration in front of the Moscow courthouse on Tuesday, but police were there, patrolling nearby streets and making random arrests. More than 230 people have been detained, according to the OVD-Info group, which monitors arrests.
Some Navalny supporters managed to get close to the courthouse. A young woman climbed a large pile of snow along the court street and erected a poster that read “Freedom to Navalny.” Less than a minute later, a police officer picked her up.
Following his arrest, Navalny’s team released a two-hour video on YouTube of an opulent Black Sea residence allegedly built for Putin. The video has been viewed more than 100 million times, fueling discontent as ordinary Russians struggle with an economic downturn, the coronavirus pandemic and widespread corruption during Putin’s years.
Putin insisted last week that neither he nor his relatives own any of the properties mentioned in the video, and his longtime confidant, construction mogul Arkady Rotenberg, claimed he owned them.
As part of efforts to quell the protests, authorities targeted Navalny associates and activists across the country. His brother Oleg, main ally Lyubov Sobol and a few others have been under house arrest for two months and face criminal charges of violating coronavirus restrictions.
Navalny’s imprisonment and repression of 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 president of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, during talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. in Moscow.
The diplomat said Navalny’s poisoning and the Russian authorities’ response to the street protests would be part of the discussion.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who will visit Moscow later this week, criticized the detentions and disproportionate use of force against protesters, stressing that Russia must live up to its international human rights commitments.
Russia has rejected criticism from US and EU officials as interfering in its internal affairs and said Navalny’s current situation is a procedural matter for the court, not a problem for the government.
More than a dozen Western diplomats attended Tuesday’s court hearing, and Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused their presence of being part of the West’s efforts to curb Russia, adding that it could be an attempt. 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 it would not consider Western criticism.
“We are ready to patiently explain everything, but we will not react to the mentor-type statements or take them into account,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.