Navalny was convicted in Russia for “large-scale fraud” – Corriere.it

Russian political opponent Alexei Navalny
– Currently in prison – Convicted in retrial of fraud and insulting judge: will have to serve Nine years in prison. Judge Margarita Kotova in her ruling said that Alexei Navalny committed fraud, in particular the appropriation of someone else’s assets through lies and breach of trust.
Navalny was also fined 1.2 million rubles, equivalent to 11,525 dollars. The charge of fraud refers to the alleged The dissident embezzlement of the funds of the anti-corruption institution he founded; To his lawyer – his only supporters in the courtroom – he is Accusations cleverly crafted to keep the opponent in prison for as long as possible. TheProsecutors demanded 13 years in prisonWhile the defense insisted on acquittal, stressing that there was no crime in Navalny’s actions. The verdict was announced at an off-site hearing in the N2 criminal colony in the city of Pokrov, Vladimir region, where Navalny has been detained since last year.

9 years. Well, as the characters of my favorite TV series “The Wire”? He would say: You only do two days. This is the day you enter and the day you leave.”
I even wore a T-shirt with this logo, but it was confiscated by the prison authorities, considering the prints to be extremist.

– Alexei Navalny (@navalny) March 22 2022

Today’s session: Alexei Navalny on stage

Alexei Navalny came to the hearing, dressed in his own clothes prison uniformHis face was emaciated and he listened to the verdict with his hands in his pockets amid sarcastic laughter and an argument with his lawyer. Judge Margarita Kotova found him guilty at the beginning of reading the sentence: Navalny committed a large-scale fraud by embezzling funds by an organized group. Prosecutors allege that Navalny stole donations of millions of rubles to his anti-corruption organizations that he would have spent on extremist activities and personal needs. He was also found guilty of insulting the court for insults directed at the judge during one of the court sessions in which he is accused. His lawyers believe the charges were skillfully drawn up to keep him behind bars for as long as possible. At the end of the reading of the verdict, Navalny, at the request of the prosecution, can be transferred to a strict prison, where the conditions of detention are much harsher and far from Moscow. About 100 journalists watched a video broadcast of the session in the press room in the penal colony. None of the opponent’s supporters, except for his lawyer, showed up amid a wave of intimidation and repression against critical voices of the Kremlin.

Why is Alexei Navalny in prison

The defector, an outspoken critic of the Kremlin and founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, has been in prison since January last year. the sentence he is serving, for two and a half years in prison, relates to a trial for embezzlement against the French beauty house Yves Rocher; The European High Court of Human Rights defined the trial, which reached a ruling in 2014, as pretext and unreasonable. The sentence was suspended on conditional grounds.
Then Poisoningwhich the Russian government has directly accused of: August 2020 Alexei Navalny was intoxicated with the nerve agent Novichok, While he was on his way to Moscow. He was taken to Berlin for treatment. Therefore, during this period, he was not able to comply with the precautionary measures that required him to regularly appear at the detention officer: on February 2, a Moscow court amended an earlier ruling that did not provide for two years imprisonment. He was imprisoned for eight months, which was later shortened by two months.

Alexei Navalny arrested

From the Pokrov penal colony, where he was detained, Alexei Navalny in recent months, and especially in recent weeks, continued to incite the Russian people to protests and demonstrations: on his social networks, his team edited him with messages conveyed by the dissident. them personally (the right that if the new sentence is implemented, he will lose the expectation of aggravated imprisonment), invited to The protest is every day of the week at 7 pm and on weekends at 2 pm. In recent weeks, 15,000 people in more than 60 cities have been arrested in these demonstrations.

Immediately after the ruling, Russian police arrested Navalny’s lawyer on Monday. The arrest took place outside the court where a new nine-year prison sentence was handed down. The correspondent of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported that lawyers, Olga Mikhailova and Vadim Kobzev, were taken away by agents as soon as they finished answering reporters’ questions.

The article is being updated…