Published 19:22 IST, February 5th 2021
Kremlin critic Navalny faces trial on charges of defaming a World War II veteran
Opposition leader Navalny was charged by court for "discrediting the honour and dignity" of the 95-year-old war veteran who was filmed in a pro-Kremlin video.
Kremlin on February 4 initiated a trial of the anti-corruption campaigner and Putin’s critic Alexey Navalny for slandering WWII veterans, following his sentence for flouting the suspended parole in 2014 on embezzlement case conviction, for which, a Moscow court handed him a 2.5-year prison term. According to Russia’s state-run agency, TASS, the opposition leader was charged for "discrediting the honour and dignity" of the 95-year-old war veteran who was filmed in a pro-Kremlin video that surfaced online. Navalny had launched controversial tweets, describing the ex-military personnel "the shame of the country," “corrupt lackeys” and “traitors. The footage, that was used as promotional content for President Vladimir Putin win until 2036, was criticized by Russia’s dissident in June 2020, for which, he now faces a penalty of up to 1 million rubles ($13,350), two years of compulsory labor or up to two years in prison.
Navalny, who has immediately arrested on Jan. 17 post his arrival to Russia after recovering in Germany from the Novichok poisoning, sparked nationwide protests as citizens demanded his release. In footage of his trial broadcasted by Press Service of Babushkinsky District court, the jailed rival of Putin’s, Navalny, was seen standing alongside the plexiglass inside a defendant dock before Moscow’s Babushkinsky District Court, who is expected to hand the verdict for the trial not shortly. Navalny’s aides, although, have condemned the fresh charges, dismissing it as politically motivated by Russian President Vladimir Putin to squash his opinions against the sitting government and corruption.
Overcrowding in dingy holding
Earlier today, Russia’s Special Purpose Detachment Unit OMON arrested dozens of demonstrators, jamming them into the police minibus, according to LIVE footages that emerged from the scene. Ground reporters of Associated Press, in a report, described detention centers flooded with Navalny's protesters, some of whom were recorded standing for more than nine hours, with no food, bathrooms, or water available due to overcrowding in a dingy holding cell. “We were detained on Jan. 31 during a peaceful protest, and we ask for help and public attention to the inhumane conditions we're forced to be in,” a man pleaded in the police minibus video, recorded and shared by Sasha Fishman on the messaging app Telegram that showed more than 11,000 protesters crammed to be processed by the legal system.
Some of the protesters were beaten mercilessly by riot police, which has resorted to using the harshest tactics and lethal force on pro-Navalny gatherers on the streets. “Many violations (of detainees’ rights) we’ve seen before. But probably the scale we see now is much scarier than before,” Alexandra Bayeva, a coordinator with the OVD-Info rights group that monitors political arrests, told The Associated Press.
Updated 19:20 IST, February 5th 2021