RUSSIAN COURT SHIPS NAVALNY TO PENAL COLONY

A Russian court on Saturday, February 20, 2021, upheld Alexei Navalny's prison sentence, rejecting an appeal by the Kremlin critic in a case that triggered international condemnation and protests across the country.

The Moscow City Court dismissed Navalny's appeal against a lower court's three-and-a-half year prison sentence handed down for violating probation terms related to a 2014 fraud conviction, clearing the way for him to be sent to a penal colony, Christian Thiele and Hannah Wagner reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

The actual term, however, is likely to be shorter, because Navalny's lawyers expect he will be credited for time already spent in detention and house arrest. This means he could be released after two years, six months and two weeks, which would be late July or early August 2023.

Navalny, who was in court for the verdict, took the judge's ruling calmly and even laughed, video from the courtroom showed. His team said they will still try to fight the sentence in the courts.

The European Court of Human Rights earlier this week had ordered Russia to immediately release the 44-year-old opposition figure and anti-corruption campaigner who is President Vladimir Putin's most vocal opponent.

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