The 45-year-old Russian opponent was judged since mid-February for scam and offense to magistrate, prosecutions he calls policies. It has been serving for just over a year a two and a half years of detention for fraud.
Le Monde with AFP
The Russian opponent imprisoned, Alexei Navalny, was sentenced, Tuesday, March 22, to nine years in prison after being found guilty of scam and contempt of magistrate.
“Navalny has committed a scam, the theft of others of others by an organized group,” said Judge Margarita Kotova, at the beginning of reading the judgment, which took several hours. The parquet was required thirteen years in prison.
The 45-year-old Russian opponent, was judged since mid-February in the even enclosure of his penitentiary colony 100 kilometers to the east of Moscow, prosecution he calls policies. It has already serviced for a little more than one year a sentence of two and a half years of detention for fraud, file also mounted of all parts according to him.
Transfer to a prison to “Severe diet”
At the end of the judgment, Alexei Navalny could be transferred, at the request of the prosecution, in a prison to “severe diet”, where the conditions of detention are much harder and which is much further from Moscow.
About a hundred journalists attended a video retransmission of the hearing in a press room in the penitentiary colony. No support from the opponent was present – if not his two lawyers – in full wave of intimidation and repression against the critical voices of the Kremlin.
In the case considered Tuesday, the investigators accuse Mr. Navalny to have diverted millions of ruins of donations to his organizations to combat corruption and “contempt in court” during one of his Previous hearings.
Renowned activist for his moving investigations of the corruption and the lifestyle of the Russian elites, Alexei Navalny survived in 2020 to a serious poisoning he holds President Vladimir Putin for responsible. In August 2020, he had fallen seriously ill in Siberia, a victim of a poisoning to a neurotoxic agent. The Kremlin denies any involvement, but the Russian authorities have never investigated this attempt at alleged assassination.
Navalny call to protest against the war in Ukraine
Upon returning to Russia in January 2021, after five months of convalescence, he was arrested and sentenced to two and a half years in prison for a “fraud” affecting at 2014 and involving the French company Yves Rocher. In June 2021, its organizations, which for years had been in all Russia, are designated “extremists” and prohibited on the field, pushing many activists in exile to avoid prosecution. Others have since been arrested and risk heavy prison sentences.
This tireless repression, which has been accompanied by the prohibition of the latest media and NGO criticism of the Kremlin, has generated an outcry in Western countries and sanctions against Moscow.
Even since its penitentiary colony, Alexei Navalny continues to transmit messages that are castigating the power of Vladimir Putin. Since the offensive in Ukraine, he firmly pronounced against the fighting. He has not ceased to express against conflict despite the risks incurred, the authorities still reinforced their legal arsenal, with heavy prison sentences, to stifle any criticism of the Russian army.
Nevertheless, more than 15,000 people were arrested in Russia in almost a month for having manifested against the offensive, according to the Specialized OVD-Info NGO. At the same time, Russian power has also strengthened its influence on the dissemination of conflict information, by blocking access to dozens of local and foreign media in Russia. Monday, Russian justice has also banned the popular American social networks Instagram and Facebook, accused, like Mr. Navalny, “extremism”. These are already blocked in Russia, just like Twitter and Tiktok.