MOSCOW (Agencies): A Moscow judge has ruled to send Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to prison for 3.5 years for violating the terms of a 2014 conviction. Navalny has called the old conviction politically motivated.
Navalny was arrested on Jan. 17 immediately after returning to Moscow from Germany, where he had been recovering from a poison attack with a rare nerve agent that he blames on Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian authorities, who have denied any involvement in the August poisoning, pressured Navalny to remain in exile.
The prison service claimed Navalny had violated the terms of his 2014 parole by not checking in while he was undergoing treatment in Germany. Navalny, who was detained at Moscow’s notorious Matrosskaya Tishina prison, was led into the glass defendant’s box that is typical for Russian courtrooms. Reporters were allowed to take pictures only before the hearing began, and Navalny, wearing a blue hoodie, could be seen communicating with his wife, Yuliya, and his lawyers.
“I very much hope that people won’t see this trial as a signal that they should be more afraid. It’s not a show of strength but a show of weakness,” Navalny told the court, according to a transcript by the news site Meduza. “They can’t put millions and hundreds of thousands in jail.”
“I salute all the honest people all over the country who are not afraid and take to the streets,” he said.
