Sputnik Pavel Bednyakov
A Moscow court rejected the appeal by opposition activist Alexei Navalny to his prison sentence for violating the terms of the suspension of his 3.5-year prison sentence issued against him in late 2014 in the case of embezzlement.
Today, Saturday, the Babushkinsky District Court in Moscow rejected Navalny’s lawyer’s request for his release in response to the European Court of Human Rights’s request, which the Russian Foreign Ministry had previously described as “contrary to international and domestic law.”
The court recognized the legality of the prison sentence issued against Navalny on February 2 by the Simonovsky court in Moscow.
The court decided to reduce Navalny’s time behind bars by 1.5 months (that is, the time Navalny spent in house arrest from December 2014 to February 2015), bringing the actual total period of his imprisonment to approximately 2.5 years.
Navalny’s lawyer expressed to reporters their intention to continue the struggle for his release, leading to recourse to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in this regard.
Today’s session was held in the presence of diplomats from nine European countries.
Navalny is scheduled to attend another court session today in his trial for defaming an elderly citizen of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) Ignat Artemenko, who participated in a video produced by RT last year where he expressed support for the constitutional amendments proposed by President Vladimir Putin. It was adopted in July.
Navalny was arrested early last January upon his return to Russia from Germany (which he has been in since he was allegedly poisoned last August), and unauthorized demonstrations were organized in several cities of the country on his appeal.
Source: Russian media
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