Deutsche Welle, 19 July 2013
A Russian court has ordered leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny freed on bail. This comes a day after he was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to five years in prison.
A Russian court has ordered leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny freed on bail. This comes a day after he was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to five years in prison.
Another
court in the northern city of Kirov on Friday ordered that Navalny be released
while he awaits the outcome of an appeal against his conviction and sentence
but it also imposed travel restrictions on the 37-year-old blogger.
There was
no immediate indication of how long the appeal process might take.
Navalny was
allowed to walk out of the Kirov district court room immediately after the bail
ruling by the Kirov regional court.
"This
is a major surprise," the AFP news agency quoted Navalny as saying upon
his release. "What happened now is a completely unique phenomenon in the
system of Russian justice," he added.
Navalny
running for mayor
Navalny is
expected to return to Moscow where he registered earlier this week as a
candidate in the city's September 8 mayoral election.
A criminal
conviction would prevent Navalny from seeking any public office, but this
restriction can only come into force when a court decision becomes final –
after all avenues of appeal have been exhausted.
Surprisingly,
the request that Navalny be released on bail came from public prosecutors.
On
Thursday, Judge Sergei Blinov sentenced Navalny to five years in jail after
finding him guilty of embezzlement for colluding to steal 16 million rubles
(382 thousand euros, $500,000) in a timber deal while acting as an unpaid
advisor to the local government of Kirov.
Widespread
condemnation
Shortly
after the decision was handed down, thousands of Navalny's supporters
demonstrated in both Moscow and St Petersburg to protest against the conviction
and sentence.
The ruling
also drew widespread condemnation from the West
"The
nature of the trial and the tough sentence are further proof of the Russian
legal system's lack of independence," a statement released by the German
government's human rights commissioner, Markus Löning, said.
"Russia
has taken a further step back from democracy and the rule of law," Löning
added.
The
European Union, Britain and the United States expressed similar concerns.
Navalny
emerged as a political force in late 2011, when he helped spearhead a series of
mass demonstrations against President Vladimir Putin, some of which drew more
than 100,000 protesters to the streets of Moscow. He has also said he hopes to
challenge Putin in the next presidential election in 2018.
pfd/ipj (AP, AFP, dpa)
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