European court orders Russia to free Navalny
MOSCOW: Europe’s top human rights court has ordered Russia to release jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny immediately. But the ruling didn’t do much to soften the Kremlin’s determination to isolate its most prominent foe.
The ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday was posted on Navalny’s website.
It demanded that Russia set him free immediately and warned failing to do so would mark a breach of the European human rights convention.
Russia’s justice minister Konstantin Chuychenko on Wednesday dismissed the ruling as “unlawful” and accused the court of meddling in the Russian judicial system.“this demand is baseless and unlawful because it does not contain any reference to any fact or any norm of the law, which would have allowed the court to take this decision,” he said.
The Strasbourg-based court said it had ruled to “indicate to the government of Russia” that it should free Navalny, whose arrest and jailing have sparked anti-kremlin protests in Russia.
The ECHR, Europe’s main human rights forum, said its decision to demand Navalny’s release was motivated by a possible risk to his life.
It said in a statement that information provided by Russia - a member of the Council of Europe - about the conditions in which Navalny was being held had been contested by the opposition politician.