Putin critic Navalny sentenced to 9 years in jail by Russian court docket

Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny was convicted of fraud and contempt of court docket and sentenced to 9 years in a most safety jail on Tuesday, in a trial Kremlin critics see as an try and maintain President Vladimir Putin’s most ardent foe in jail for so long as attainable.

A decide additionally dominated that Navalny must pay a nice of 1.2 million rubles (about $11,500). Navalny can enchantment the ruling.

Navalny, who’s already serving 2½ years in a penal colony east of Moscow, had been accused of embezzling cash that he and his basis raised through the years and of insulting a decide throughout a earlier trial.

The politician has rejected the allegations as politically motivated. The prosecution had requested for 13 years in a most safety jail for the anti-corruption crusader and a 1.2 million-ruble nice.

It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not Navalny is anticipated to serve this sentence concurrently along with his present one or on prime of it, and which most safety facility he might be transferred to and when.

Navalny’s Twitter account responded to the ruling with a quote from “The Wire” tv sequence: “(9) years. Nicely, because the characters of my favourite TV sequence The Wire used to say: ‘You solely do two days. That is the day you go in and the day you come out.’ I even had a T-shirt with this slogan, however the jail authorities confiscated it, contemplating the print extremist.”

The trial, which opened a few month in the past, unfolded in a makeshift courtroom within the jail colony hours away from Moscow the place Navalny is serving a sentence for parole violations. Navalny’s supporters have criticized the authorities’ determination to maneuver the proceedings there from a courthouse in Moscow, saying it has successfully restricted entry to the proceedings for the media and supporters.

Navalny, 45, has appeared at hearings carrying jail garb and made a number of elaborate speeches in the course of the trial, decrying the fees in opposition to him as bogus.

Navalny was arrested in January 2021 instantly upon his return from Germany, the place he spent 5 months convalescing from a poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin, a declare Russian officers vehemently denied. Shortly after the arrest, a court docket sentenced him to 2½ years in jail over the parole violations stemming from a 2014 suspended sentence in a fraud case that Navalny insists was politically pushed.

Following Navalny’s imprisonment, authorities unleashed a sweeping crackdown on his associates and supporters. His closest allies have left Russia after going through a number of legal costs, and his Basis for Combating Corruption and a community of practically 40 regional workplaces have been outlawed as extremist — a designation that exposes individuals concerned to prosecution.

Final month, Russian officers added Navalny and numerous his associates to a state registry of extremists and terrorists.

A number of legal instances have been launched in opposition to Navalny individually, main his associates to recommend the Kremlin intends to maintain him behind bars for so long as attainable.