Russian court postpones start of Navalny case
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MOSCOW • A Russian court yesterday postponed the first hearing in an "extremism" case against the political network of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, part of a campaign to outlaw the opposition to President Vladimir Putin.
As the hearing started behind closed doors, the prosecution submitted additional documents and the case was postponed until June 9, according to lawyers representing Navalny's network.
The case is part of a sweeping crackdown on Mr Putin's most prominent critic and his supporters after Navalny barely survived a poisoning attack with the Novichok nerve agent last summer.
As part of the effort against his group - which comes a few months before the country's parliamentary elections - the Lower House is set to begin debating today a Bill banning members of "extremist" organisations from being elected lawmakers.
Navalny's network is being represented by lawyers of Team 29, a group based in Saint Petersburg that specialises in freedom of speech and treason cases. The lawyers said it was not clear why the hearing was held behind closed doors.
The Kommersant business daily yesterday cited a source as saying the secrecy was because some of the case files contained personal information of police involved in dispersing opposition protests. But key Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov said on Twitter that the case materials were kept secret so that "nobody could see the absurdity of what was happening".
Prosecutors in April requested that Navalny's regional network and his Anti-Corruption Foundation be designated "extremist" organisations, accusing them of plotting to stage a Western-backed uprising in Russia.
Such a court ruling would put Navalny and his supporters and financial backers on a par with members of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria militant group and Al-Qaeda and threaten them with long prison sentences.
"The opposition will be crushed," said independent political analyst Abbas Gallyamov, a former Kremlin speechwriter. He warned that the official ban on dissent would eventually backfire. "By destroying the opposition, they are destroying their own legitimacy," Mr Gallyamov said, referring to the Russian authorities.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
