Moscow court rejects opposition leader Navalny’s appeal against prison sentence

A Moscow court rejected on Saturday (local time) Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s appeal against his prison sentence, even as the country faced an order from a high European court of rights to free the Kremlin’s most prominent enemy.

A few hours later, a judge in a separate case ordered Navalny to pay a fine for defaming a World War II veteran.

During the first court hearing, Navalny urged the Russians to confront the Kremlin in a fierce speech mixing references to the Bible and Harry Potter.

Navalny, 44, an anti-corruption crusader and most vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin, was arrested on January 17 upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from nerve agent poisoning that he attributes to the Kremlin. The Russian authorities have rejected the accusation.

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Earlier this month, Navalny was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for violating the terms of his probation while convalescing in Germany. He appealed the sentence and asked to be released. Instead, a Moscow city court judge reduced the prison sentence to just over two and a half years, deducting a month and a half that Navalny spent under house arrest in early 2015.

The judgment stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny has rejected as fabricated and the European Court of Human Rights has ruled illegal.

Navalny has been detained in Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina Prison, but Russian news reports said that after losing his appeal, he would likely be sent to a prison in the western part of Russia in the next few days to serve his sentence.

His arrest and imprisonment have fueled a large wave of protests in Russia. The authorities responded with heavy repression, arresting some 11,000 people, many of whom were fined or imprisoned for seven to 15 days.

In his address to the audience, Navalny made reference to the Bible and Harry Potter and animated comedy Rick and morty while urging the Russians to resist pressure from the authorities and challenge the Kremlin to build a more just and prosperous country.

“The government’s job is to scare you and then persuade you that you are alone,” he said. “Our Voldemort in his palace also wants me to feel isolated,” he added, referring to Putin.

“To live is to risk everything,” he said, citing Rick and morty. “Otherwise, you are just an inert hunk of randomly assembled molecules that drift wherever the universe takes you.”

Navalny also addressed the judge and the prosecutor, arguing that they could have a much better life in a new Russia.

“Imagine how wonderful life would be without constant lies,” he said. “Imagine how wonderful it would be to work as a judge … when no one could call you and give you instructions on what verdicts to render.”

He insisted that he was unable to present himself to the authorities in accordance with his parole requirements while he was convalescing in Germany after his poisoning, emphasizing that he returned to Russia immediately after his health permitted.

“I was not hiding,” he said. “The whole world knew where he was.”

Navalny said he was an atheist before but has come to believe in God, adding that his faith helped him face his challenges. He said that he believed in the biblical phrase that those who hunger and thirst for justice are blessed, and that he does not regret having decided to return to Russia.

“Although our country is built on injustice and we are all constantly confronted with injustice … we also see that millions of people, tens of millions of people, want justice,” Navalny told the court. “They want justice and sooner or later they will have it.”

When asked about the impact of Navalny’s prison sentence on Russian politics, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the country’s “rich and multifaceted” political scene will unfold regardless of the verdict.

Russia has dismissed Western criticism of Navalny’s arrest and crackdown on protests as meddling in its internal affairs.

In a ruling Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights ordered the Russian government to release Navalny, citing “ the nature and extent of the risk to the applicant’s life. ” The Strasbourg-based court noted that Navalny has challenged the Russian authorities’ argument that he had taken sufficient measures to safeguard his life and well-being in custody after the nerve agent attack.

The Russian government has rejected the European court’s claim, describing the ruling as illegal and “inadmissible” an interference in Russian affairs. Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that the Russian Justice Ministry sent a letter to the court on Saturday asking it to review its order.

In the past, Moscow has complied with the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights granting compensation to Russian citizens who have contested verdicts in Russian courts, but never faced a lawsuit from the European court to release a convicted person.

In a sign of its long-standing annoyance with the Strasbourg court verdicts, Russia last year adopted a constitutional amendment declaring the priority of national legislation over international law. The Russian authorities could now use that provision to reject the ECHR’s decision.

After losing his appeal, Navalny had a second court hearing on the defamation charges of a World War II veteran and was ordered to pay a fine of 850,000 rubles (about $ 15,735). Prosecutors asked for a fine of 950,000 rubles ($ 17,585).

Navalny called the 94-year-old veteran and others who appeared in a pro-Kremlin video last year as “corrupt puppets,” “people without conscience” and “traitors.” He rejected the defamation charges, describing them as part of official efforts to discredit him.

Navalny said at the hearing that his accusers “will burn in hell.”