Putin critic Alexei Navalny found guilty by Russian court
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was sentenced Tuesday to 9 years behind bars on new costs of embezzlement and contempt.
The 45-year-old dissident — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most well-known adversary — was already serving a 2½-year sentence at a jail camp for parole violations associated to previous theft costs involving the identical case, claims have been fabricated to thwart his political ambitions.
“Navalny dedicated fraud — the theft of property by an organized group,” Choose Margarita Kotova stated Tuesday, including that the defendant was additionally responsible of an extra felony offense for publicly insulting the courtroom, in accordance with Agence France-Presse.
The dissident — who survived a nerve-agent assault in 2020 that Russia has denied finishing up — was accused of stealing a number of million dollars’ price of donations that got to his political teams. He has denied the fees.
Navalny’s attorneys stated the brand new sentence replaces his present lesser one, which means that he is not going to be freed for an additional eight years, as an alternative of a yr and a half after serving a yr already on his previous sentence. He additionally will likely be moved to a maximum-security jail.
On Tuesday, Navalny appeared unfazed as he stood within the makeshift courtroom on the jail camp carrying his black issued uniform, trying down as he flipped by paperwork earlier than receiving the extra time within the maximum-security penal colony.
“Putin is afraid of the reality, I've all the time stated this. Preventing censorship, relaying the reality to the folks of Russia all the time remained our precedence,” Navalny wrote on Instagram after his sentencing.
The opposition politician additionally injected humor into the state of affairs, joking that his “area flight is being prolonged — my ship has gotten caught in a time loop.”
Navalny’s spouse Yulia posted on Instagram: “The determine 9 means completely nothing. I really like you, my dearest particular person on the earth, and I’ve by no means stopped being pleased with you all these many, a few years.”
His attorneys, Olga Mikhailova and Vadim Kobzev, have been briefly detained by police outdoors the jail in Pokrov, a city close to Moscow, after the decision however have been later launched.
Final week, a Russian prosecutor referred to as for his sentence to be prolonged to 13 years and for him to be transferred to a “strict regime” jail.
The prosecutor additionally referred to as for him to pay a tremendous of 1.2 million rubles, the equal of about $11,500.
Navalny was jailed final yr when he returned to Russia after receiving medical remedy in Germany after the assault involving Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent, throughout a go to to Siberia in 2020.
He blamed Putin for the assault, however the Kremlin stated it had seen no proof that Navalny was poisoned and denied any Russian function if he was.
On March 15 — after the prosecutor referred to as for a stiffer sentence for him — Navalny struck a usually defiant tone on Instagram, writing, “If the jail time period is the value of my human proper to say issues that have to be stated … then they will ask for 113 years. I cannot surrender my phrases or deeds.”
Navalny’s opposition motion has been labeled “extremist” and shut down, however his supporters proceed to precise their political beliefs, together with their opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Đăng nhận xét for "Putin critic Alexei Navalny found guilty by Russian court"