Russian Supreme Court rejects Navalny sentence commutation appeal
Moscow, Mar 30 (EFE).- Russia’s Supreme Court rejected Wednesday an appeal against the commutation of a fraud sentence against Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalni, whose defense asked to annul the decision on his prison admission over the Yves Rocher case, in favor of a suspended sentence.
“The court refused to transfer the appeal to the cassation body,” according to a Supreme Court source quoted by the Interfax agency.
A similar decision was adopted by the court in relation to a complaint by the opponent’s defense against the court decision, according to which Navalni entered a preventive detention center after his return from Germany in February last year, where he was recovering from poisoning.
Currently, Navalny is serving a sentence of two and a half years in a prison in Pokrov, 85 kilometers from Moscow.
Navalni was initially sentenced to three and a half years in prison for a case of fraud and money laundering related to the French firm Yves Rocher, during a trial that took place in 2014.
Until 2021, the biggest critic of the Kremlin, enjoyed conditional release but entered a penitentiary center after returning from Germany amid protests that left more than 10,000 detainees.
In another trial last week, Navalni was sentenced to nine years in prison when the Russian Justice declared him guilty of large-amount fraud and offense to the court, which implies that he will remain in prison for this decade.
The new sentence against Navalni also includes a fine of RUB 1.2 million (about $ 12,000) for contempt of court. EFE
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