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Russian court jails Navalny for 30 days

AJUDGE yesterday ordered Alexei Navalny to be remanded in custody for 30 days, the Russian opposition leader’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter.

The ruling concluded an hours-long court hearing set up at a police precinct where the politician was held since his arrest at a Moscow airport.

Navalny was detained at passport control at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport after flying in on Sunday evening from Berlin, where he was treated following the poisoning in August that he blames on the Kremlin.

Navalny’s arrest prompted a wave of criticism from US and European officials, adding to existing tension between Russia and West.

German foreign minister Heiko Maas noted that Navalny had returned of his own volition.

He said: “It is completely incomprehensible that he was detained by Russian authorities immediately after his arrival.

“Russia is bound by its own constitution and by international commitments to the principle of the rule of law and the protection of civil rights. These principles must of course also be applied to Alexei Navalny.”

The politician’s allies said he was being held at a police precinct outside Moscow and had been refused access to his lawyer.

The court hearing into whether

Navalny should remain in custody was hastily set up at the precinct itself, and the politician’s lawyers said they were notified minutes before.

“It is impossible what is happening over here,” Navalny said in video from the improvised court room. “It is lawlessness of the highest degree.”