Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalni attended a trial to cancel the probation ruling held in Moscow on the 2nd. The court sentenced Navalni to three years and six months in prison. As a result, Navalni was forced to serve two years and six months, excluding one year in house arrest. Moscow = AP Newsis
Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalni, who was arrested shortly after returning home after being treated for poison addiction in Germany, was eventually sentenced to jail at trial. With the arrest of Navalni, large-scale anti-government protests are raging across Russia, and the ruling is expected to plunge Russian society into even more extreme chaos.
The Moscow Sinonovsk District Court ruled that the probation for Navalni be converted to imprisonment at a trial to cancel the probation ruling held on the 2nd (local time). As a result, Navalni was sentenced to three years and six months in prison. The Tas news agency said Navalni had spent one year under house arrest and would serve the remaining two years and six months.
Navalni was charged with illegal acquisition of 31 million rubles (about 590 million won) from the Russian branch of a French cosmetics company in 2014, and was sentenced to three years and six months in prison and five years probation. Navali has refused to enforce it, claiming it was a political prosecution. Accordingly, the Federal Penal Enforcement Bureau, the correctional authority, filed a lawsuit with the court to cancel the probation, claiming that Navalni had violated his probation obligation.
At the trial on that day, the execution bureau said, “Navalni did not appear at the supervisory authority at least six times from January to mid-August last year, and from October after he was discharged from the German hospital, until the end of the probation period, which is the end of the probation period, He urged that the imprisonment was necessary, saying, “I did not implement it.” On the other hand, lawyer Navalni argued that the judicial treatment was unfair, saying, “The treatment process for poisoning poisoning has been prolonged and rehabilitation treatment was required even after discharge, so it was not possible to comply with the report of appearance.” Navalni, who had another opportunity to speak, protested, saying, “It is trying to scare millions of people by imprisoning one person.” However, the court finally reached out to the correctional authorities.
Earlier, Navalni fell into a coma after a poison terror on a Russian domestic flight in August last year, and was treated at a hospital in Berlin, Germany, and then regained consciousness. Suspicion of the involvement of the Russian Federal Security Agency (FSB) in terror has been steadily raised, but Russia strongly denies it. Navalni was arrested and imprisoned at the airport shortly after returning to Russia on the 17th of last month.
Since then, large-scale protests have continued every weekend in Russia, demanding the release of Navalni and criticizing President Vladimir Putin’s situation. More than 5,000 people were arrested in protests held simultaneously in 120 cities on the 31st of last month. On the same day, when a large-scale protest was announced ahead of the trial, the Russian police closed all the streets near the court and detained 750 Navalni supporters who had gathered at the court.
The international community is also fiercely opposed to the news of the sentence of Navalli’s prison sentence. In a statement, US Secretary of State Tony Blincoln urged Navalni to be released unconditionally, saying, “The United States expresses deep concern that the Russian authorities have canceled the probation of imprisonment for Navalni, an opposition man.” He also emphasized that “while working with Russia to promote US interests, we will work closely with allies and partners to ensure that Russia is responsible for failing to protect the rights of its own people.”
Kim Pyo-hyang reporter [email protected]
News directly edited by the Hankook Ilbo can also be viewed on Naver.
