At 20.30 it became known that the opposition politician and blogger would not go home, but to a general regime colony. Chronicle of the process - in the publication of Novye Izvestia.
The surprises began even before the trial began. In the morning it became known that the court changed the website a judge who must consider the FSIN's request to replace the suspended sentence of Alexey Navalny with a real one. Instead of Yulia Okuneva, Natalia Repnikova appears on the card.
It is known that in 2018 she passed verdicts in the case of the Vostochny cosmodrome, where a billion rubles were stolen. His defendants received from 4.5 to 8 years in prison.
The reasons for the castling were not named, but the media immediately recalled that in mid-January The Insider published an investigation about Judge Okuneva. The journalists found out that the judge's relatives are co-owners of firms that receive contracts from law enforcement agencies, including the FSIN, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSO.
At 11 o'clock, Navalny's lawyer and his wife Yulia entered the courtroom, as the Mediazona correspondent reports, followed by journalists. Navalny was already in a glazed cell. At the same time, the press was banned from filming anything with cameras and phones, as well as conducting live video broadcasts.
- Press, turn off the broadcast! Who is broadcasting from the audience? - the bailiff asked the journalists.
- It's me! - retorted Navalny from the "aquarium".
At 11.22 Judge Natalia Repnikova opens the field session. When asked about his place of residence, Navalny replies: "SIZO No. 1" ... Next Repnikova introduces the parties to the process. They are Prosecutor Yekaterina Frolova, Head of Branch No. 15 of the UFSIN Alexander Yarmolin and Navalny's lawyers Vadim Kobzev and Olga Mikhailova.
At 11.35, lawyer Kobzev submitted a motion in which he asks to attach to the case a copy of the notification dated January 9 to the address of the UIS branch number 15 that Navalny will not appear for registration, as he is on vacation outside the Moscow region. The lawyer says that the UIS representative received a notification.
Kobzev also asks to attach the original from the Charite clinic, which says that Navalny was on treatment from August 22 to September 23, suffered severe organophosphate poisoning, then underwent outpatient rehabilitation, after discharge he gained about 10% of the mass and now his weight has become the same as before the incident. Document date - January 15, 2021, Berlin, head of the intensive care unit.
Lawyer Olga Mikhailova asks to attach the presentation on the criminal case and the ECHR decision in the case “Navalny v. Russia”.
Prosecutor Frolova asks to get acquainted with these documents - for this she needs a 10-minute break.
The judge announces a break for 10 minutes.
At 11.39, Interfax reports that at least 30 people have been detained at the building of the Moscow City Court at the moment, who managed to break through the police cordons posted on all adjacent streets.
11:55. The court resumes its work and submits documents from Navalny's defense - a certificate from the Charite clinic and the ECHR decision in the Yves Roche case. Prosecutor Frolova is not against this, however, claims that the notification was of January 9, and Navalny had to appear on the first and third working Mondays of the month, that is, January 13 and 27. As for the certificate dated January 15, it was not presented to the UIS, says the prosecutor.
Then the representative of the Federal Penitentiary Service announces a claim to replace the term with a real one. He speaks very quietly and the majority of those present simply cannot hear him. According to Yarmolin, Navalny committed more than 50 violations of the probationary period and public order, as well as "duties imposed by the court." In particular, the facts of rehabilitation in the Sharite clinic have not been confirmed, since Navalny easily moved around Germany and even went in for sports, but did not appear at the Moscow penal correction system twice a month. As a result, the UFSIN asks the court to cancel the suspended sentence for Navalny and decide on the execution of the sentence in the colony.
"I ask the court to cancel Navalny's probation and decide on the execution of the sentence imposed by the Moscow Zamoskvoretsky Court, by which Navalny was sentenced to three years and six months in a colony with a fine of 500,000 rubles", - a spokesman for the FSIN said at the meeting.
At 12:21 pm, the prosecutor, as the correspondent of Ekho Moskvy reports, asked why the Federal Penitentiary Service did not send a proposal to replace Navalny's term with a real one until December 29? In response, a representative of the Federal Penitentiary Service said that his department hoped that "Navalny would take the path of correction, but he did not draw any conclusions," having violated the conditions of the probationary period 7 times in total.
In response, lawyer Kobzev points out the strangeness of a certain certificate from the Federal Penitentiary Service about the beginning of search activities. In his opinion, the title of the document completely contradicts the content - it lists not the initial events, but what preceded them.
Judge Repnikova also does not understand the content of the certificate and promises to give her assessment later. Next, the judge asks why the search for Navalny was not terminated when the FSIN received a certificate from the Charite clinic?
"Because after the treatment he had to appear in the penal correction system", - followed the answer of Yarmolin. To which the lawyer Kobzev remarked: "the whole country and the world, even the guard at the entrance, knew that Navalny was being treated, only you (the FSIN) did not know".
Yarmolin replies that the convicted person must report himself, but the lawyer could not be contacted because they did not have his phone, and as soon as they appeared, they immediately wrote a text message.
12.48 Russian Foreign Ministry Speaker Maria Zakharova called the presence of foreign diplomats in the Moscow City Court "not just interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state", but "self-exposure of the unsightly and illegal role of the collective West in attempts to contain Russia". "Or is this an attempt at psychological pressure on the judge?", - Zakharova asked a rhetorical question.
Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov also said that the diplomats who came to the trial on Navalny should not interfere in the internal affairs of Russia, RIA Novosti reports.
"We are ready to consistently and patiently explain everything, but we do not intend to react to any mentoring statements and do not intend to take them into account", - the president’s press secretary explained.
Russia has every reason to believe that the situation with Navalny is a fake, since Germany does not provide any evidence of the alleged poisoning, said Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Diplomats from 14 countries came to the Moscow City Court. These are representatives of the Czech Republic, Austria, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, Latvia, Poland, as well as the European Union. Their cars with red diplomatic plates are parked outside the court.
Meanwhile, in court, the parties are heatedly discussing the issue of whether the FSIN knew or did not know where and why Navalny was from August to January.
12:52
Navalny - FSIN: Dear Captain, do you respect Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin?
Prosecutor's Office: Please remove the question.
Navalny: The President announced that he had sent me for treatment. You didn't know that either?
Navalny: I fell into a coma, woke up, then left the hospital, met with the lawyers and sent you a paper about where I am and why I am there. What else could I do? You had an address. You came to my house and said that you do not know where I am...
13.05. The position of the FSIN is as follows: only the period of treatment in the hospital in August-September is counted, everything else is not considered treatment.
“I could not get through to either the FSIN or you personally, because you turned off the phones”, - lawyer Mikhailova almost shouts to Yarmolin. She recalls that she was not allowed to show one of the certificates during the detention of Navalny, because at the airport she was immediately cut off from her client
Judge - FSIN: When you were told that Navalny was in a hotel in Germany, did you check this address? FSIN: They did not check...
13:13. In the Moscow City Court, the stage of questions to the representative of the FSIN from Navalny and his defense has ended. The court proceeded to study the written materials of the case.
13:29 According to OVD-Info, 237 people were detained in the area of the Moscow City Court. In the paddy wagons were also representatives of the media - the correspondent of the RusNews publication was detained during a live broadcast. The police ripped off the woman's press card without explaining the reasons. The Dozhd TV channel showed riot police, whose personal badges were sealed with tape and their faces were hidden by masks.
The daughter of the municipal deputy Yulia Galyamina Evdokia was detained near the Moscow City Court, Novaya Gazeta reports.
13.54. The court announced a break. Navalny, according to TG channels, asked for food from McDonald's...
True, the courier who had arrived with food for the defendant was not allowed inside the court.
During the break, it became known that Yves Roche had distanced itself from the process by issuing a corresponding statement.
Navalny's supporters responded on the TG channel with clear resentment:
"1. The verdict in the case was overturned by the ECHR, after which Navalny received compensation from the state for unlawful prosecution.
2. In 2013, Yves Rocher itself conducted an audit, the results of which confirmed that the company had not suffered damage from the deal with the Navalny brothers' company.
16.07. Judge Repnikova returns to the courtroom. In the debate that has begun, she gives the first floor to Navalny. According to him, "the essence of the matter is to jail me in a case in which I was found not guilty, and which was found to be fabricated".
Then the politician and blogger turned to personal attacks against President Putin. To which the judge called on the defendant, who began to talk about politics, "to speak on the merits of the case being heard".
However, the newcomer continued his familiar rhetoric - about the arrests, about the security forces, about the rise in prices for eggs and pasta and the standard of living of people living 100 km from the Moscow Ring Road. The judge once again tells Navalny that he is not at the rally. “I’m already right there”, - the politician replies.
In the end, Navalny demands the immediate release of himself and all those arrested. "I do not recognize this whole idea, it does not comply with the law and I demand immediate release", - he said.
In response, the judge noted that "you did not say anything about the FSIN's presentation".
16.32. Lawyer Kobzev takes the floor. He repeats the idea that Navalny did not hide from supervision and was put on the wanted list illegally, and his whereabouts were always known to the FSIN - this follows from the certificates and documents presented to the court. It follows from them that after being discharged from the hospital, the client continued treatment and at first was in such a state that he learned all the elementary things anew and could not even lift a lump from the floor. Conclusion: Navalny was illegally put on the wanted list and he was not hiding anywhere.
Then the lawyer Olga Mikhailova reminded the court that the FSIN officers came to Navalny's home on September 16, when he was in a coma, and the notification in December, as it is written, "left" somewhere near the apartment. Thus, according to the lawyer, the officers of the UIS misled the chief, indicating that they did not know where Navalny was.
16:53
Prosecutor - Navalny: Is it true that from January to August 2020, you deliberately missed registration at the inspection six times?
Navalny: Not true. The verdict established to appear at the inspection twice a month. For five years, twice a month, I came to your... inspection.
This is followed by a pick with prosecutor Frolova, who recalled that after missing the registration of the defendant, each time they warned about the possibility of replacing the suspended sentence with real detention, as well as that the FSIN did not bother Navalny and his representatives while he was being treated in the clinic "Charite". However, the prosecutor, as she stated, did not receive direct answers to her questions. Navalny replies that he was in a coma, and nothing bothered him at all, and then for a long time he did not remember anything and did not recognize anyone.
Finally, prosecutor Frolova says that Navalny, a citizen who has two suspended sentences, realizing his unprecedented condescending attitude, considered it possible for himself to violate the conditions.
Prosecutor: The courts satisfy the requirements of the criminal inspectorates in case of violations of the replacement for a real term in 100 percent of cases. Navalny is the only person in the Russian Federation who received the privilege of a suspended sentence twice. The court showed unprecedented leniency. Despite the humanism shown to him, Navalny violated the conditions of the suspended sentence. Navalny maliciously avoided duties. The conditionally convicted person after undergoing treatment did not inform about his whereabouts. He freely moved around the FRG, went in for sports, gave interviews. Navalny does not draw the proper conclusions, even if he does not stand up for corrections.
The prosecutor asks to take Navalny into custody, but to include the term under house arrest.
In addition, the prosecutor asks to make a private presentation to the head of the UIS branch and draw attention to the improper control over Navalny.
17:25 The court leaves for a decision on the case.
18.24. At least 321 people were detained at the Moscow City Court during the trial to replace Navalny's suspended sentence with a real one. It is reported by OVD-Info.
20:08. Alexey Navalny was taken to the courtroom.
20.15 Judge Natalya Repnikova read out the decision: Navalny was sent to a general regime colony for 3 years and 6 months. Excluding house arrest, the actual stay in the colony will be 2.5 years.
The defense retains the right to appeal to the Moscow City Court.