Kathmandu, February 20. The Court of Moscow City on Saturday upheld the prison sentence of the opposition leader and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny. 

Earlier this month, the Russian court had sentenced Navalny to over two-and-a-half years in prison. His personal lawyer Olga Mikhailova had lodged an appeal to the Court asking to release the defence. The European Court of Human Rights also demanded the immediate release of Navalny.

On Saturday, the judges decided to partially reject the appeal by reducing the sentence by one and a half months. While reacting to the court’s order, Navalny’s spokesperson said that the decision to send the anti-corruption activist was a sign that “there is no justice in Russia.”

In 2014, Navalny was found guilty of fraud in a French cosmetics company case. The court had decided to jail him for 3.5 years. But, his sentence was suspended with a probation period till 2020. He was ordered to show up for checks at Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service(FSIN). But, since he didn’t follow the rules, the Russian court on February 2 decided to replace the suspended sentence with a real-time prison. 

On January 17, Navalny was detained by FSIN officers while he landed at the Moscow airport. Demanding the immediate release, more than 15 thousand supporters demonstrated for weeks in over 60 cities all over Russia. The situation worsened when the police cracked down on the protestors.

Earlier on August 20, Navalny fell ill on a domestic flight in Siberia and was flown to Germany in a medical aircraft. He was kept in a medically induced coma for eighteen days during his treatment. In December, a Russian agent named Konstantin Kudryavtsev revealed that Navalny was attacked with a nerve agent Novichok, which was placed in his underpants. He also added that the call was made from a Federal Security Service (FSB) landline and he later removed traces of Novichok from Navalny’s clothes.

Novichok is a neurotoxic agent which is considered to be a chemical weapon that was developed by the former Soviet Union. According to an article on BBC, it is said that a Russian agent was tricked into revealing the details of the assassination. It is said that Navalny impersonated security personnel to call the agent. Recalling the trauma in October, Navalny told “They’ve been striving for a long time to force me out of the country,” further adding “I don’t know how events will develop, I’m not going to take risks. I have my cause, I have my country.”

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