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Russian prison service asks opp. figure Navalny to return to avoid jail

Tuesday, 29 December 2020 6:25 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 29 December 2020 11:11 AM ]

Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny takes part in a rally in Moscow, Russia, on February 29, 2020. (File photo by Reuters)

Russia’s prison service has called on opposition figure Alexei Navalny to return from Germany and abide by the terms of a suspended prison sentence he received five years ago or face its transformation to a real jail term.

The Federal Prison Service (FSIN) said on Monday that Navalny was violating the terms of the suspended prison sentence and evading the supervision of Russia’s criminal inspection authority.

Citing an article by the British medical publication The Lancet published on December 22, it said Navalny had been discharged from Berlin’s Charite Hospital on September 20 and that all symptoms of his illness had disappeared by October 12.

“Therefore the convicted man is not fulfilling all of the obligations placed on him by the court, and is evading the supervision of the Criminal Inspectorate,” it said.

Navalny received a suspended three-and-a-half-year prison term over a theft case on December 30, 2014. His five-year probation period expires on Wednesday.

According to Article 190 of the Russian Penal Code, the FSIN can file a petition with the court to revoke the suspended sentence of a person and change it to a real prison term if he fails to fulfill the terms of his probation.

The prison service mentioned no deadline, but Navalny claimed that his lawyer had been informed that he had until 0900 on Tuesday to report at a Moscow office.

Navalny, 44, was airlifted to Berlin on August 22. He had collapsed during a domestic Russian flight on August 20 and had been taken to a local hospital. His aides claimed he had been poisoned after drinking a bottle of water at a hotel before the flight.

On September 2, Germany claimed without evidence that the Russian opposition figure had been poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent.

The Russian doctors who tested Navalny’s blood for poisoning before he was moved to Germany said at the time that the test results had come back negative.

Nearly half of Russians believe Navalny’s poisoning fake or 'provocation' by West, poll shows

According to a new poll, only 15% of Russians believe the Kremlin poisoned Alexei Navalny while nearly half of them say it was either faked or a provocation by the West.

Western governments have nevertheless been attacking Russia with accusations that it poisoned Navalny, saying Moscow must help investigate the case or face consequences.

The Russian government has denied any involvement in any attack on Navalny.

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