“Listen, cowards and scoundrels! » On the eve of the new trial against Alexei Navalny, his wife launched a challenge to Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin. On social networks, Yulia Navalnaïa, wife for more than twenty years of the most famous opponents of the regime, demanded to attend the hearing.
Unprecedented fact, from this Tuesday, February 15, Alexeï Navalny is indeed tried behind closed doors from his prison. A way to avoid the presence of his relatives and the press in the court, but also of demonstrators around. “They want to hide it from everyone, from supporters, from journalists. I continue to ask for freedom for my husband. And I ask at least to be able to see him in court! », rose up Mme Navalnaïa, denouncing the “cowardice” of the Kremlin. “Let every wife and mother in Russia imagine herself in my place!” »
Alexei Navalny, already sentenced to two and a half years in prison, incarcerated for a year in the penal colony IK-2 about a hundred kilometers east of Moscow, was to appear by videoconference before a court in the capital. He will be tried in two of the new cases opened against him. This time it’s for “scam” and « outrage » to magistrate: the investigators accuse the opponent of having embezzled the equivalent of 4.1 million euros in donations intended for his organizations and of having insulted a judge during a previous hearing. Charges punishable respectively by a maximum of ten years and six months in prison.
Lawsuits against relatives escalate
“Clearly unsatisfied with the prison sentences already imposed on Alexei Navalny, the Russian authorities are trying him again behind barbed wire walls in a show trial, attended by prison guards rather than the media. This deprives Navalny of his right to a fair trial,” denounced Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The Russian justice did not explain why this trial was held in prison or specify how the witnesses and the defense team will participate in the hearings.
Also listen Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Putin’s number one enemy
While the sentences handed down against Mr. Navalny last year have since been criticized by the Council of Europe (“a breach of Russia’s international human rights obligations”), the lawsuits against his relatives have intensified.
His two main allies, Ivan Zhdanov and Leonid Volkov, who live in exile, have been added to the Russian catalog of “terrorists and extremists”. The regional headquarters of their movement in the country have been closed and their local leaders targeted, prosecuted and often forced into exile to avoid prison. In addition, the Russian telecoms policeman, Roskomnadzor, asked at least seven media known for their independent and critical tone (Dojd, Medusa, Znak, Echo de Moscou, Free News, The Village, Boumaga) to delete dozens of contents from their websites. In particular articles relaying the video by Alexeï Navalny entitled “A palace for Putin”, on the ultra-luxurious residence that the Russian president owns on the shores of the Black Sea.