Feisty Navalny blasts Putin, the ‘poisoner’
Court sends Kremlin critic to prison for violating terms of an earlier sentence
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Tuesday accused President Vladimir Putin of trying to “scare millions” by sending him to prison as a Moscow court was considering sending him to jail for several years. Addressing the courtroom in a fiery speech, Navalny repeated his claims that authorities tried to kill him with a nerve agent last summer and mocked Putin over allegations the poison had been placed in his undergarments. “The main thing in this process is to intimidate a huge number of people,” he said. “They are putting one person behind bars to scare millions.” He added that Putin wants to be seen as a great leader and historic figure, but instead “will go down in history as a poisoner of underpants”. The court later ordered Navalny to prison where he will spend another two years and eight months, with time deducted for house arrest already served, his lawyer was quoted as saying after the hearing.
MOSCOW: Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Tuesday accused President Vladimir Putin of trying to “scare millions” by sending him to prison, hours before a Moscow court sent him to prison for nearly three years to serve out a 2014 sentence in full.
Addressing the courtroom in a fiery speech, Navalny repeated his claims that authorities tried to kill him with the Novichok nerve agent last summer and mocked Putin over allegations the poison had been placed in his undergarments. He added that Putin wants to be seen as a great world leader and historic figure, but instead “will go down in history as a poisoner of underpants”.
Navalny was in court charged with violating the terms of a 3.5-year suspended sentence he was given in 2014, because he did not check in with the prison service while recovering from the poisoning in a German hospital.
On Tuesday, the court determined that he had violated probation terms and sentenced him to 3.5 years. The 10 months he had served under house arrest will be discounted from this term. Navalny’s team called for immediate protests.
The 44-year-old Navalny, an anti-corruption investigator who is the most prominent critic of President Putin, was arrested on January 17 upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from the nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities deny the charge and claim, despite tests by several European labs, that they have no proof he was poisoned.
Speaking from a glass cage in the courtroom, Navalny attributed his arrest to Putin’s “fear and hatred”. “I have deeply offended him simply by surviving the assassination attempt that he ordered,” he said.
“The aim of that hearing is to scare a great number of people. You can’t jail millions. You can’t jail the entire country. You have stolen people’s future and you are now trying to scare them. I’m urging all not to be afraid.”
Navalny emphasised that the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that his 2014 conviction was unlawful and Russia paid him compensation in line with the ruling.
Navalny and his lawyers have argued that while he was recovering in Germany, he couldn’t register with Russian authorities in person as required by his probation. Navalny also insisted that his due process rights were crudely violated during his arrest and described his jailing as a travesty of justice.
“I am fighting and will keep doing it even though I am now in the hands of people who love to put chemical weapons everywhere and no one would give three kopecks for my life,” Navalny said.