Alexei Navalny was arrested on Sunday after landing in Moscow.
In an urgent procedure, a Russian court has now pronounced the verdict: Navalny must be detained.
Alexej Navalny * was
arrested in Russia on Sunday.
For several hours it was unclear where the Russian police were
holding
the
Putin critic
.
Now
Navalny has
been sentenced to 30 days imprisonment
in an
urgent trial
in a police building
(see update from January 18, 3 p.m.).
Update from January 18, 5:56 p.m
.: The foreign policy spokesman for the left-wing
faction
,
Gregor Gysi
,
criticized
the way the Russian authorities
dealt
with the
Kremlin opponent Alexej Navalny
after his return from Germany.
"I think it's completely wrong that
Navalny was
sentenced to 30 days in prison for violating reporting obligations immediately after his return," said
Gysi
on Monday.
“Even if
Navalny
attacks the political structure in Russia heavily, you shouldn't treat a person like this on arrival after an attempted murder in Russia and his recovery in Germany.”
Gysi
added that he hoped the court would refrain from revoking his parole.
Navalny: “Unacceptable” - EU states are demanding immediate release
Update from January 18, 4 p.m.:
In a joint declaration, the EU states demanded the
immediate release of
Alexej Navalny
.
In it they warned the Russian government against further repression against the opposition and civil society.
“The politicization of the judiciary is unacceptable, and Mr Navalny's rights must be respected,” the letter published on Monday said.
The
European Union
will include developments in its policy towards Russia.
The current
imprisonment of the opposition politician
confirms the negative image that the space for the opposition, civil society and independent voices in Russia is shrinking.
Arrested journalists and supporters of Nawalnys must be released immediately.
The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell disseminated the statement
Alexej Navalny addresses society in a YouTube video: Appeal to take to the streets
Update from January 18, 3:45 pm:
“Don't be afraid, take to the streets - not for me, but for you, for your future.” With these words to his compatriots, the
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny reported
on Monday in one Video on YouTube to speak.
Shortly after it was published, the Russian court sentenced him to 30 days in prison.
Update from January 18, 3 p.m.:
According to the
German Press Agency,
Alexej Navalny
was
sentenced to
30 days in prison
by a Russian court in an urgent procedure
.
The opposition politician had violated reporting requirements after a previous criminal trial, it said on Monday.
Navalny criticized the process as a political staging with the aim of silencing him.
Federal government calls action against Alexej Navalny "completely untenable"
Update from January 18, 2:45 p.m .:
"The Russian authorities have arrested the victim of an assassination attempt with chemical weapons and not the perpetrators," said
government spokesman Steffen Seibert
.
“The German government therefore urges the Russian government to first release Mr. Navalny immediately;
and secondly, to fully clarify the circumstances of the chemical weapons attack on Russian soil. "
+
Alexej Navalny (M) and his wife Julia at the airport.
Shortly afterwards, the Kremlin critic was arrested.
© Mstyslav Chernov / AP / dpa
Seibert said
the Russian authorities' actions against the opposition politician
were "completely untenable".
The authorities previously justified his arrest on the grounds that he had violated probation obligations.
The judgment in question, according to Seibert, was classified as "arbitrary" by the European Court of Human Rights.
The Russian opposition politician Navalny stayed "after the assassination attempt against him here in Germany to convalescence," said Steffen Seibert.
It is therefore untenable to accuse him of violating his probation conditions for this period.
The government spokesman also criticized Nawalny's short-term judicial hearing at the police station.
Navalny arrest in Russia: International criticism of actions against opposition politicians
Update from January 18, 2 p.m.:
The arrest of the
Kremlin critic Alexej Navalny is
causing
outrage
internationally
.
"We note with great concern that his arrest is the latest in a series of attempts
to silence
Navalny
and other opposition and independent voices critical of the Russian authorities,"
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote
in one Message.
EU Council leader Charles Michel
called on his Twitter account for the
release of Navalny
: "I call on the Russian authorities to release him immediately." The imprisonment of the opposition politician is unacceptable.
Update from January 18, 12.53 p.m.:
The German federal government had
already requested
the immediate release of
Alexej
Navalny
.
Now EU Commission President
Ursula von der Leyen *
joins.
“I condemn the detention of Alexei Navalny by the Russian authorities.
You have to release it immediately and ensure its safety, ”a statement said.
She also continues to expect an independent investigation into the
attack
on the Kremlin critic.
Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny: Russia's foreign minister calls for a joint investigation in the laboratory
But it doesn't look like that at the moment.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
instead demanded evidence from
Germany that
the 44-year-old was poisoned,
according to the dpa
.
"Fulfill your international obligations," Lavrov said on Monday at an online press conference.
Russia was unable to
prove
any poisoning with the chemical warfare agent
Novichok
near Navalny
and is therefore not initiating any investigations.
Alternatively, Lavrov suggested that Russian doctors and their Western colleagues could examine the samples together - "so that trust is built".
Several laboratories, including one from the German Armed Forces, had detected the neurotoxin Novitschok in Navalny's blood.
The
EU
therefore also imposed sanctions on representatives of the Russian power apparatus.
Alexej Navalny: Trial in an urgent procedure - "Grandpa in his bunker is now so afraid"
First report from January 18, 11:33 a.m .:
Moscow - As soon as he
landed
in
Russia
, the Russian authorities were already waiting for him.
Putin critic Alexei
Navalny is now apparently to be sentenced by an emergency court.
And possibly at a police station.
The spokeswoman for Navalny, Kira Jarmysch, wrote on Twitter on Monday that his
“trial” was
starting “now” - 12.30 p.m. in Moscow, 10.30 a.m. German time.
Shortly thereafter, she posted a video in which Navalny speaks.
He was taken out of a cell so that he can see his lawyers.
Then he was taken to this
police
building.
“I don't understand,” said Navalny.
He calls the action against him a "peak of lawlessness".
The Russian authorities had "torn up and thrown away the code of criminal procedure."
In other photos that Nawalny's spokeswoman retweeted, you can see people waiting and a camera team in a narrow room.
Alexei Navalny demands that journalists be admitted to the urgent procedure
Navalny can later be seen on the Twitter account of spokeswoman Jarmysch in the room with a judge.
In a video he calls for all journalists to be admitted, not just reporters loyal to the regime.
All others were apparently banned from the building before the "trial".
Lawyers criticized this urgent process as unprecedented - even by Russian standards.
Navalny speaks of
"lawlessness"
.
"I have often seen how the rule of law is ridiculed, but this grandpa in his bunker is now so afraid (...) that now the code of criminal procedure is simply torn up and thrown on the dump,"
Navalny
said
in the improvised Courtroom.
By “grandpa in his bunker” Navalny means the Russian President
Vladimir Putin *
.
"It is impossible what happens here."
Nawalny's lawyers had apparently received a letter
informing them that
a
trial was to
begin
in the police building, which then opened without anyone having been able to prepare.
Nawalny's lawyers and employees had previously stated that there was no trace of the opposition.
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Alexej Navalny apparently shortly before the rush trial in Russia - return from Germany on Sunday
Navalny had on Sunday after five months in Germany, where he recovered from an attack with the neurotoxin
Novitschok *
recovered, abandoned.
After arriving in Moscow, he was arrested at passport control.
The judiciary had put him out to be wanted.
The
Kremlin critic
is said to have violated probation conditions in a previous criminal case during his stay in Germany *.
Navalny criticizes the action against him as politically motivated.
(cibo / dpa) * Merkur.de is part of the Ippen digital network.
