Google – AFP, 16 October 2013
 |
Russian
protest leader Alexei Navalny attends a court hearing in the
northern city of
Kirov, on October 16, 2013 (AFP, Vasily Maximov)
|
Kirov —
Russian protest leader Alexei Navalny on Wednesday escaped being sent to a
penal colony on controversial charges he claims were ordered by the Kremlin
after a court converted his five-year sentence into a suspended term.
President
Vladimir Putin's top critic walked free from court after the appeal verdict,
although the embezzlement conviction that disqualifies him from politics
remains in place.
The
decision by a regional court in the northern Kirov region came after Navalny
made a surprisingly robust showing in the Moscow mayor election in September,
coming second behind the Putin loyalist Sergei Sobyanin.
Navalny's
co-accused Pyotr Ofitserov, who was previously sentenced to four years in a
penal colony, also received a suspended sentence.
 |
Russian
protest leader Alexei Navalny hugs his
wife Yulia after his court hearing in
the northern
city of Kirov, on October 16, 2013 (AFP,
Vasily Maximov)
|
Several
thousand took to the streets of Moscow after his five-year sentence was
announced in July.
"There
was enough pressure that forced the authorities to free us at least for a
time," Navalny said after the ruling while visiting an exhibition of
sketches done at trials of activists by opposition supporters.
"It is
all absolutely obvious that all the decisions, first on the real sentence and
the change now to suspended, are taken definitely not here but personally by
Vladimir Putin," Navalny said in court after the ruling.
"I
have not the faintest idea what is going on in his head, why he changes his
decision," he added, to applause from his supporters.
With his
conviction confirmed, Navalny is barred from standing for office in the
foreseeable future. But he defiantly vowed to carry on the battle against Putin
and his allies.
"It is
absolutely clear they will not manage to push out me and my colleagues from
this political fight. We will continue," he said in court before hugging
his wife.
Navalny,
who also faces several other criminal probes, said he would appeal the
conviction.
Writing
later on his blog, Navalny said it would be strange to call Wednesday's
decision a victory. "I am not going to be able to run for office," he
said.
'He has
many backers'
'He has
many backers'
Wednesday's
hearing was uncharacteristically swift, with Navalny saying he saw no sense in
participating in debates. The judge said the reasoning for the decision would
be presented on Thursday.
A member of
the Kremlin's rights council said the suspended sentence might qualify Navalny
for an amnesty the Kremlin is considering to mark the 20th anniversary of
Russia's post-Soviet constitution in December.
"A
reversal to a suspended sentence matters in this case," Mara Polyakova
told AFP.
Wearing his
trademark uniform of tie-less shirt with sleeves rolled up, Navalny sat on the
defendants' bench typing into an Apple laptop with a "Putin -- thief"
sticker on the back.
A
charismatic 37-year-old lawyer, Navalny won 27 percent of the vote in Moscow
mayoral polls thanks to a populist campaign that played on anti-migrant moods
and weariness with widespread corruption.
Navalny
charged the Moscow authorities had skewed the vote in favour of Sobyanin to
avoid a humiliating second round run-off.
In July,
Kirov's Lenin district court found Navalny and Ofitserov guilty of embezzlement
over a 2009 timber deal and ordered their immediate arrest.
But in a
surprise decision, Kirov's regional court freed them the next day, arguing they
should remain free pending their appeal. The unprecedented move allowed Navalny
to run for Moscow mayor and he attended the appeal as a free man.
Many said
the court reversed the sentence after Navalny's success at the ballot box due
to fears his jailing could lead to street protests.
"This
has nothing to do with democratisation or a loosening of the grip," wrote
opposition figure Ksenia Sobchak, referring to the ruling.
"He
has many backers, they would have come out in his support, therefore the term
has been changed to suspended," added Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a
Kremlin-connected analyst, saying from now on he would walk on thin ice.
"If he
slips, there will be a detention, an arrest and a real term," she told
AFP.
Navalny
rose to political stardom at mass protests in the winter of 2011/2012 against
Putin's return to the Kremlin for a third term.
Related Article:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.