MOSCOW (AP) – A Moscow court on Tuesday sentenced Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to more than two-and-a-half years in prison on charges of violating the conditions of his parole while he was recovering. Germany of a poisoning by nervous agent, ignite more protests across the country.
Just before the verdict, Navalny, who is President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, had denounced the procedure as a futile attempt by the Kremlin to scare millions of Russians. His team called on the Russians to gather immediately in central Moscow in protest.
The verdict came despite massive protests across Russia over the past two weekends and Western calls for the release of the 44-year-old anti-corruption defender.
The prison sentence comes from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny has rejected for fabrication and political motivation.
Navalny was arrested on January 17 on his return from his five-month convalescence in Germany from the attack, which has blamed the Kremlin. Russian authorities deny any involvement. Despite tests by several European laboratories, Russian authorities said they have no evidence that he was poisoned.
When the order was read, Navalny smiled and pointed to his wife Yulia in the room and drew the outline of a heart in the glass cage where he was being held. “Everything will be fine,” he told her as the guards drove him.
Prior to the trial, Navalny attributed his arrest to Putin’s “fear and hatred,” saying the Russian leader will go down in history as a “poisoner.”
“I have offended him deeply to survive the assassination attempt he ordered,” he said.
“The goal of this hearing is to scare a large number of people,” Navalny added. “You can’t imprison the whole country.”
Russia’s prison service alleges that Navalny violated the parole conditions of his suspended sentence since the 2014 sentence. He asked the Simonovsky district court to turn his 3-and-a-half-year suspended sentence into a who is due to serve in prison, although he has spent about a year under house arrest which will now be counted as full-time.
Navalny stressed that the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that his 2014 conviction was illegal and Russia paid him compensation in accordance with the sentence.
Navalny and his lawyers have argued that while recovering from poisoning in Germany, he could not personally register with the Russian authorities, as required by his parole. Navalny also insisted that his rights were violated under the trial during his detention and described his imprisonment as false justice.
“I returned to Moscow after completing the course of treatment,” Navalny said at Tuesday’s hearing. “What else could I have done?”
Navalny Prison has sparked massive protests across Russia over the past two weekends, with tens of thousands taking to the streets to demand their release and chant slogans against Putin. Police on Sunday arrested more than 5,750 people, including more than 1,900 in Moscow, the largest number the nation has seen since Soviet times. Most were released after receiving a court summons, and face fines or sentences of seven to 15 days in prison. Several people faced criminal charges for alleged violence against police.
“I’m fighting and will continue to do so even though I’m now in the hands of people who love to put chemical weapons everywhere and no one would give three blows for my life,” Navalny said.
Navalny’s team called a demonstration on Tuesday in front of the Moscow court, but police were in place, cordoning off nearby streets and making random arrests. More than 320 people were arrested, according to the OVD-Info group that monitors the arrests.
Some Navalny fans still managed to get close to the building. A young woman climbed a large pile of snow down the street from the court and raised a sign that said “Freedom to Navalny.” Less than a minute later, a police officer took her away.
Hours before the sentencing, authorities also cordoned off Red Square and other parts of central Moscow, as well as St. Petersburg Palace Square in anticipation of protests. Police flooded the centers of both cities.
In court, Navalny thanked the protesters for their courage and urged other Russians not to fear repression.
“You can’t imprison millions,” he said. “You have stolen people’s future and now you are trying to scare them. I urge everyone not to be afraid. “
Observers noted that authorities want Navalny in jail, for fear he could campaign effectively against the Kremlin’s main party, United Russia, in the September parliamentary elections. “If Navalny stays free, he is absolutely capable of burying the Kremlin’s plans regarding the outcome of the Duma elections,” said political analyst Abbas Gallyamov.
Following his arrest, Navalny’s team posted a two-hour YouTube video 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 recession, the coronavirus pandemic and widespread corruption during Putin’s tenure.
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 ownership.
As part of efforts to crush the protests, authorities have directed Navalny associates and activists across the country. His brother Oleg, top ally Lyubov Sobol and several others were arrested at home for two months and face criminal charges for violating coronavirus restrictions.
Navalny prison and repression of protests have sparked international outrage.
The British Secretary of State, Dominic Raab, denounced the sentence on Tuesday.
“The United Kingdom is calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Alexei Navalny and all peaceful protesters and journalists arrested over the past two weeks,” Raab said. “Today’s perverse sentence, aimed at the victim of a poisoning and not those responsible, shows that Russia is failing to meet the most basic commitments expected of any responsible member of the international community.”
Earlier Tuesday in Moscow, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde, the current president of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, urged Russia to release Navalny and condemned the crackdown on protests.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who will visit Moscow later this week, has criticized the arrests and the disproportionate use of force against protesters, stressing that Russia must fulfill its international commitments in matter of human rights.
Russia has rejected criticism from the US and the EU as meddling 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 the hearing, and Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said her presence was part of the West’s efforts to contain Russia, adding that she could it is an attempt to exert “psychological pressure” on the judge.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was ready for dialogue on Navalny, but sternly warned it would not heed Western criticism.
“We are willing to patiently explain everything, but we will not react to mentor-style statements or take them into account,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
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Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.