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“Enforcement of a sentence with such significant deficiencies is completely inconsistent with the findings and spirit of the ECHR decision,” the committee’s decision said.
In 2014, a Moscow court found A. Navalna and his brother Oleg guilty of fraud and embezzlement of the cosmetics company Yves Rocher. The opposition was sentenced to a quarter of a year in prison and his brother was sent to prison for a quarter of a year.
In 2017, the ECHR ruled that Navaln’s conviction in that case was “arbitrary” for violating his human rights and sentenced the activist to some 80,000. compensation.
A 44-year-old Kremlin critic was arrested in January as soon as he returned to Moscow from Germany, where he was treated for several months for poisoning with the nerve-paralyzing substance Novičiok. After that, a wave of massive protests broke out in the country.
The opposition was subsequently jailed for violating the terms of a previous probation sentence because, while in Germany, where he was being treated for poisoning, he did not come to register for service twice a month.
The court commuted the probation sentence imposed on A. Navalns in 2014 to an actual prison term and ordered that he remain in prison for two years and eight months. A little later, his sentence was reduced to six weeks, given the time he spent under house arrest.
The ET Committee of Ministers on Friday called on Russia to release Navalna immediately.
The document also notes that the committee will reconsider the issue in June and discuss “individual measures.”
According to opposition lawyer Olga Mikhailova, “the Committee of Ministers will continue to pay special attention to the implementation of the decision in the Yves Rocher case, and if the demand for his immediate release is not met, influential measures can be considered in June.” “
Last month, Russian Justice Minister Konstantin Chuichenko said that the ECHR’s demand to release Navalna went against Russian law and accused the judges of making a “manifestly political decision.”
“The ECHR’s request to release Mr. Navalna is unprecedented for several reasons. First, it is a clear and flagrant interference in the activities of the courts of a sovereign state,” said Chuichenko’s comment sent to the Interfax news agency in that moment.
“Secondly, this claim is unfounded and illegal, since it does not contain any fact or legal norm that allows the court to make such a decision,” the minister stressed.
In early February, Navaln’s lawyers appealed to the Council of Europe, an international organization whose stated goals are to protect human rights and guarantee democracy, to take action against Moscow for failing to implement the ECHR ruling in the Yves Rocher case.
The United States issued sanctions in early March against the director of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and six other people linked to the near-fatal poisoning of a prominent Kremlin critic with nerve-paralyzing substances and his subsequent imprisonment.
EU sanctions against Alexander Bastrykin, head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Viktor Zolotov, head of the National Guard, Attorney General Igor Krasnov and Alexander Kalashnikov, director of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) also came into force.
Washington coordinated with the EU after US intelligence concluded that Moscow had organized the Navaln poisoning in August.
Fifty UN member states have condemned Russia
Dozens of countries on Friday criticized Russia at the United Nations for its decision to jail Alexei Navalna, a critic of the Kremlin, and condemned the “arbitrary arrests” of many of his supporters.
In a landmark joint statement to the UN Human Rights Council, 45 member states expressed concern about the “deterioration of the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Russia”, adding that “illegal detention, arrest and detention by Alexei Navaln is a particular proof of this “.
The authors of the statement called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of the Russian opposition and other people “illegally or arbitrarily detained”.
Navaln was sentenced last month to two and a half years in prison for violating the terms of a probation sentence previously imposed during his recovery in Germany from the poisoning.
Condemning the fact that the attack had not been “properly investigated and reliably explained”, the states described the actions of the Russian authorities and courts in this case as “unacceptable and politically motivated”.
“They go against Russia’s international human rights obligations, including the right to liberty and security of person and the right to a fair trial,” said Zbigniew Czech, Polish ambassador to the UN in Geneva.
He said states were concerned about “the arbitrary arrest of many protesters in many Russian cities in support of Mr. Navaln.”
“The overall unfolding of events surrounding the arrest, imprisonment and oppression of their Navaln allies and supporters is tangible proof of the shrinking space for civil society in the Russian Federation,” the Czech Republic warned.
According to him, such actions are “tools of the State to attack independent media and civil society and silence opposing voices.”
“We are particularly concerned about the recent legislative amendments and constitutional changes that further restrict rights and freedoms,” said the Polish diplomat.
Activists welcomed Friday’s “landmark” statement, the first to be submitted to the Human Rights Council on Russia’s actions.
“The statement made today by 45 countries is as historic as the repression in Russia,” John Fisher, head of his Geneva office, said in a Human Rights Watch statement.
“The Russian government has imprisoned the country’s most prominent opposition figure and passed a series of repressive new laws to demonize and punish critics,” he said, urging the UN Human Rights Council to step up “controls and action to end the repression. “
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