Navalny has been convicted by Moscow’s Lefortovo Court of embezzling U.S. $ 4.7 million of donations given to his foundation and of insulting a judge during a previous trial
Alexei Navalny, the biggest critic of President of Russia – Vladimir Putin has been sentenced to additional 9 years in a maximum-security jail, over new embezzlement and contempt of court charges.
Navalny has been convicted by Moscow’s Lefortovo Court of embezzling U.S. $ 4.7 million of donations given to his foundation and of insulting a judge during a previous trial. Navalny would also have to pay a fine of 1.2 million roubles (U.S. $ 11,500).
The trial, which opened about a month ago, unfolded in a makeshift courtroom in the prison colony hours away from Moscow where Navalny is serving a sentence for parole violations. Navalny’s supporters have criticised the authorities’ decision to move the proceedings from a Court in Moscow, saying it has effectively limited access to the proceedings for the media and supporters.
Taking it to twitter, Navalny tweeted,
1/10
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) March 22, 2022
9 years of strict regime.
My space flight is taking a bit longer than expected – the ship is caught in a time loop.
It occurred to me that my role in this saga is similar to that guy from Interstellar.
Navalny was arrested in January 2021 at the Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, immediately after he returned from Germany. He had returned after a period of 5 months, completing his treatment in Germany for alleged poisoning with a chemical nerve agent from Novichok Group. Navalny claims he was poisoned on the instructions of the President of Russia – Vladimir Putin.
Further to this, a District Court in Moscow sentenced Alexei Navalny to two and a half years in prison. The Court ruled that while Navalny was in Germany, he violated the probation terms from a 2014 case in which he had received a suspended sentence of three and a half years.
The Court observed that suspended sentence will now be replaced with a prison term. The judge took into account the 11 months Navalny had already spent under house arrest as part of the decision. The case goes back to 2014 when Navalny was found guilty of fraud after he and his brother Oleg were accused of stealing 30 million Rubles (U.S. $ 540,000) from a Russian subsidiary of French cosmetics company – Yves Rocher. While Navalny was given a suspended sentence, his brother was jailed.
His closest allies have left Russia after facing multiple criminal charges and his Foundation for Fighting Corruption and a network of nearly 40 regional offices have been outlawed as extremist. In February, 2022, Russian officials added Navalny and a number of his associates to a state registry of “extremists” and “terrorists”.
