Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny yesterday said that his treatment was beyond a “mockery of justice,” as he was brought before a hastily organized court a day after his dramatic airport arrest.
With calls growing in the West for Navalny’s release, he was brought into a courtroom set up at a police station in Khimki on the outskirts of Moscow where he was taken following his detention on Sunday night.
Police seized Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponent, at a border control post at Sheremetyevo International Airport less than an hour after he returned to Russia from Germany for the first time since he was poisoned with a nerve agent in August.
Photo: AP
In a video posted by his team from inside the hearing, an incredulous Navalny said that he did not understand how a court session could take place at a police station and why no one had been notified until the last minute.
“I’ve seen a lot of mockery of justice, but the old man in the bunker [Putin] is so afraid that they have blatantly torn up and thrown away” Russia’s criminal code, Navalny said.
In another video, Navalny called for the hearing to be open to all journalists, after only pro-Kremlin media were allowed to attend.
“I demand that this procedure be as open as possible, so that all media have the opportunity to observe the amazing absurdity of what is happening here,” he said.
About 100 people, mostly journalists, had gathered in the snow outside the police station and several police vans were waiting nearby with their engines running.
Russia’s FSIN prison service on Sunday said that it had detained Navalny for breaching the terms of a suspended sentence he was given in 2014, on fraud charges he said were politically motivated.
Navalny is also facing potential new criminal charges under a probe launched late last year by Russian investigators, who say he misappropriated more than US$4 million in donations.
His arrest has drawn widespread Western condemnation.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russian authorities should “immediately release him and ensure his safety.”
The UN human rights office said it was “deeply troubled” by the arrest, while German Minister for Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas said it was “totally incomprehensible.”
Calling the detention “appalling,” UK Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs Dominic Raab wrote on Twitter: “Rather than persecuting Mr Navalny Russia should explain how a chemical weapon came to be used on Russian soil.”
Moscow has hit back at the condemnation, with Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov saying it was an attempt to distract attention from domestic problems in Western countries.
“It looks like Western politicians see this as an opportunity to divert attention from the deepest crisis the liberal development model has found itself in,” Lavrov said.
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