The Moscow City Court has postponed the consideration of Alexey Navalny’s appeal against the nine-year sentence that he received in March on charges of “embezzlement” and “contempt of court” until 24 May, a correspondent of Novaya Gazeta. Europe reports from court.
Navalny requested to postpone the session, as he was unable to listen to the audio recording of the court ruling. He also has a scheduled visit from his wife on 20 May, whom he wants to see before being transported to a strict-regime prison.
Navalny’s attorneys Vadim Kobzev and Olga Mikhailova added that they were not provided with the audio recording of the court ruling either. The session was then postponed until May 24.
Kobzev and Mikhailova demand to acquit Navalny due to multiple violations documented during the hearing. Meanwhile, the prosecution states that the defence’s arguments are not based on law.
On March 22, Moscow’s Lefortovo Court extended Navalny’s sentence to nine years in a strict-regime prison facility after a court hearing held at Penal Colony №2 in Russia’s Vladimir Region. The opposition leader was also slapped with a fine of 1.2 mln rubles ($18,500).
The court determined that Navalny, together with his allies Leonid Volkov and Roman Rubanov, had embezzled the money donated by Navalny’s supporters “to fight corruption” and to fund his presidential election campaign.
According to the court ruling, Navalny understood that he had no legal grounds to run for president and planned to embezzle the donated money, which comes up to a total of 2.7 mln rubles ($41,800).
Besides, Navalny was charged with “contempt of court” for offensive statements addressed to Judge Vera Akimova during a court hearing in 2021, in a libel case involving WWII veteran Ignat Artemenko. Navalny threatened “to remove the judge from the court hall,” calling her “a vile toad” and an “Obersturmbannführer.” He also made offensive statements to prosecutor Yekaterina Frolova and the veteran’s grandson Igor Kolesnikov.
Navalny was issued a 850,000-ruble ($12,400) fine in the libel case.
In February 2021, Navalny was sentenced to 3 years and six months in a general-regime prison facility for violating the terms of probation imposed from the so-called Yves Rocher embezzlement case in 2014. He is currently serving his sentence in Penal Colony №2 in the city of Pokrov in the Vladimir Region. If the court rejects his appeal against the extended sentence, he will be transported to a strict-regime facility.
