Putin critic faces guilty verdict
PROMINENT Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny faced a guilty verdict yesterday in a trial that could end his bid to challenge President Vladimir Putin in next year’s presidential poll.
Prosecutors in Kirov, northeast of Moscow, want a five-year suspended sentence for Kremlin critic and anti-corruption whistleblower Navalny, 40, on embezzlement charges he claims are politically motivated.
That result would not see him sent to jail but could bar him from standing for elected office.
The judge began reading his decision yesterday, which will end with the official verdict and sentencing.
In Russian courts, rulings can take hours and even days, but Navalny and his lawyer said it had already become obvious that the judge would find against him. “It’s clear that it’s a guilty [verdict],” Navalny said in the courtroom during a break.
Lawyer Olga Mikhailova said the judge had said: “The court established that Navalny organised embezzlement. The judge will proclaim him guilty.”
The Kremlin critic said he had brought a bag of clothes and food with him in case he was jailed.
In December, Navalny wrong-footed the Kremlin by announcing his intention to run for president in 2018, while Putin has yet to confirm his expected participation.
The court held a retrial in Navalny’s case after the European Court of Human Rights last year quashed an original 2013 ruling, saying that the politician and his co-defendant, businessman Pyotr Ofitserov, did not have a fair trial.
After the European court decision, Russia’s Supreme court ordered a retrial for Navalny and Ofitserov. – AFP