More than 100 supporters of Russian opposition leader and main Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny were arrested Tuesday outside a trial hearing that could see him imprisoned for up to three-and-a-half years.
The independent OVD-Info protest monitoring group said at least 112 people were arrested while the hearing was taking place, and days after more than 5,000 people were detained across the country for protesting in his support.
Navalny received a suspended prison sentence for fraud in 2014, which the Russian authorities are now applying to turn into a full custodial sentence due to alleged parole violations. The European Court of Human Rights deemed that conviction politically motivated.
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Navalny, 44, was poisoned and almost died while conducting a corruption investigation in Siberia last summer. He was airlifted to Germany for treatment after Russian doctors found no signs of poisoning. It was later determined that he was poisoned with Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok, which Navalny claims was ordered by President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin has denied any involvement.
Stood behind reinforced glass, Navalny joked with his wife Yulia, who was arrested at a rally last weekend, calling her “a bad girl.”
Illustrating the international interest in the case, representatives from Latvia were among foreign diplomats from several countries in court to observe the hearing.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Facebook the diplomats’ presence “isn’t just meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, but the self-incrimination of the west’s unsightly and illegal attempts to contain Russia.”
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Navalny has been a thorn in Putin’s side for years with his anti-corruption investigations into the Kremlin elite. His latest investigation into a luxurious palace allegedly belonging to Putin has been viewed more than 100 million times on YouTube. The Russian president has denied he owns the palace.
Yuliya Talmazan and Patrick Smith reported from London; Matt Bodner reported from Moscow.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
