A court in Moscow has turned down an appeal by the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny against his prison sentence, the latest legal defeat for the man who has emerged as the Kremlin’s most vocal critic.
Navalny, 44, was arrested in January after returning home from Germany, where he had been recovering from a near-fatal poisoning that he and Western governments have blamed on the Kremlin. The government of Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied the accusation, and earlier this month sentenced Navalny to 32 months in prison, saying he had broken the terms of a probation agreement tied to a 2014 embezzlement conviction. Navalny has called that case, and others against him, politically motivated.
Speaking from inside a courtroom cage on Saturday, Navalny sought to challenge the court’s determination that he was in violation of his parole, noting that he was convalescing in Germany under the glare of an international firestorm.
Read this story now for free
To continue reading, sign up for our newsletter and get unlimited access to WABE.org
You can select your preferences for news and local content. We will never share your email address. Learn how your newsletter sign-up will support WABE and Public Media
