Russian court orders Navalny held in police custody until mid-February

A Russian court has ordered opposition figure Alexei Navalny to remain in custody until February 15, a day after he was arrested at the airport upon his arrival in Russia from Germany, his aides say.

Navalny, 45, was taken ill on a domestic flight on August 20 last year. He was later transported to the German capital, where he was hospitalized with alleged poisoning.

His aides, as well as the German government and some Western countries, had already claimed he had been poisoned before the domestic Russian flight, blaming Moscow.

But the Russian doctors who examined Navalny before he was moved to Germany said at the time that they had found no trace of a toxic substance in his blood sample.

Moscow has time and again denied involvement in any attack on the opposition figure. It also maintains that Western media coverage of the case of the opposition figure serves as a pretext to promote new sanctions against Russia.

On Monday, an impromptu court hearing in Khimki police station, near Moscow, demanded that Navalny must be remanded in custody.

The court’s decision means that Navalny will be detained for 30 days, from the day of his arrest on Sunday, awaiting trial, his lawyer Vadim Kobzev tweeted.

He is accused of breaking the terms of his probation, following a three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence he received in 2014, RT reported. That conviction relates to a fraud case involving the French cosmetics brand Yves Rocher, which the opposition figure says was politically motivated.

Russian opposition figure Navalny arrested upon arrival in Moscow

Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who had violated the terms of his suspended prison sentence, was arrested upon arrival in Moscow.

Separately on Monday, the European Union (EU) called for the release of Navalny as Baltic countries and lawmakers pressed for fresh sanctions against Moscow.

“The European Union condemns the detention of the Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny upon his return to Moscow on 17 January and calls for his immediate release,” said Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell in a statement on behalf of the EU’s 27 nations.

He also said the EU would follow closely the developments in this field and would continue to take this into account when shaping its policy towards Moscow.

Navalny, who denounced the court’s ruling on Monday, called on his supporters to take to the streets and rally for his release.

“Do not be silent. Resist. Take to the streets – not for me, but for you,” he said.

The arrest of Navalny may reignite political pressure on the West to tighten sanctions on Russia, particularly against an $11.6-billion project to build a natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.

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