Navalny decries 'mockery of justice' at makeshift hearing
Judge orders Kremlin critic be held for 30 days as calls for release grow
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MOSCOW • Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said yesterday that he was facing a "mockery of justice" as the Moscow police organised a makeshift hearing a day after his dramatic airport arrest.
With calls growing in the West for Mr Navalny's release, he was brought into a courtroom set up at the police station in Khimki, on the outskirts of Moscow, where he was taken following his detention on Sunday night.
Aides said Mr Navalny, who returned to Russia for the first time since being poisoned with a nerve agent in August, was denied access to his lawyers and notified of the hearing at the last minute.
His team released a video of an incredulous Mr Navalny at the hearing. "I've seen a lot of mockery of justice... but they have ripped up and thrown away" Russia's criminal code, he said.
"This is impossible. It's ultimate lawlessness."
A judge ordered Mr Navalny be held for 30 days until Feb 15 for violating the terms of a suspended jail sentence, his spokesman said on Twitter. Another hearing is set for Jan 29 to rule on the alleged violation, which could see him imprisoned for as long as 3 1/2 years.
Around 200 Navalny supporters gathered outside the police station, in temperatures of minus 18 deg C, and demanded he be set free, a Reuters witness said.
The police seized the 44-year-old, the most prominent opponent of President Vladimir Putin, at a border control post at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport after he returned to Russia in defiance of warnings he would be arrested.
Russia's prison service said it had detained Mr Navalny for violating the terms of a suspended sentence he was given in 2014, on fraud charges he says were politically motivated.
Mr Navalny emerged a decade ago as the leading critic of the Kremlin, with his Anti-Corruption Foundation publishing anti-graft investigations that reveal the lavish lifestyles of the Russian elite.
He has repeatedly led large-scale protests against Mr Putin, most recently in the summer of 2019, and was gearing up for another challenge to the authorities during elections to the lower House, State Duma, in September.
He was evacuated to Germany after falling violently ill on a flight over Siberia in August from what Western experts concluded was a poisoning with Soviet-designed nerve agent Novichok. Mr Navalny accused Mr Putin of ordering the attack, a claim the Kremlin denies. Russia's police have not opened an investigation, citing a lack of evidence.
Mr Alexei Navalny's arrest drew widespread condemnation, with the United States, European Union, France and Canada all calling for his release.
Others joined that call yesterday, with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen saying the Russian authorities should "immediately release him and ensure his safety".
His arrest drew widespread condemnation, with the United States, European Union, France and Canada all calling for his release.
Others joined that call yesterday, with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen saying the Russian authorities should "immediately release him and ensure his safety".
In a tweet, United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet's office said it was deeply troubled by the arrest and called for his immediate release. "We reiterate our call for a thorough and impartial investigation into his poisoning," it added.
Russia has hit back at the condemnation, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday saying it was an attempt to distract attention from domestic problems in Western countries.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BLOOMBERG