A Moscow court on Feb. 2 sentenced chief Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to serve nearly three years in prison for violating the terms of his parole.
Judge Natalya Repnikova ordered the suspended three-and-a-half-year sentence Navalny received in 2014 to be changed to time in a penal colony, AFP reported. Repnikova said that time Navalny previously spent under house arrest would count as time served. Navalny’s team said this means the opposition leader would spend at least two and a half years in prison.
Navalny supporters held rallies across Russia’s 10 largest cities during his court hearing on Feb. 2, 2021.
On the night of Feb. 2, 1,408 people were detained throughout Russia, with 1,145 people detained in Moscow, 350 of whom were in front of the courthouse where Navalny’s case was being considered. In St. Petersburg, 229 people were detained. Arrests also took place in Izhevsk, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Kirov and other cities.
Police detained not only protesters but also journalists carrying press cards and wearing vests labeled with the word “press.”
