DISINFO: Navalny is not imprisoned for his political activities
SUMMARY
Navalny is not in prison for his political activities, but because of the criminal offences he has committed, including crimes against foreign businessmen working in Russia.
RESPONSE
Recurrent disinformation message on Alexei Navalny aiming to discredit him and his opposition movement.
This claim was neither counterbalanced nor critically challenged in the article.
Charges against Navalny are politically motivated and were presented while he was recovering in Berlin after the poisoning attempt on his life six months earlier, as a means of forcing him to stay in exile. The European Court of Human Rights, where Russia is a member, has concluded that the original charges against Mr. Navalny was politically motivated.
On 30 December 2014, Navalny and his brother were found guilty of money laundering and of defrauding the companies MPK and Yves Rocher Vostok. They were convicted under Articles 159.4 §§ 2 and 3 and 174.1 § 2 (a) and (b) of the Russian Criminal Code. They complained to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) under Article 5 §§ 1 and 3 of the Convention for being placed under house arrest for ten months. Navalny submitted that that decision had been arbitrary and unnecessary for the purposes of his criminal proceedings and had had the goal of keeping him out of public life and away from political activity.
The ECHR ruled that indeed there has been violations of Articles 5, 10 and a violation of Article 18 of the Convention taken in conjunction with Article 5 of the Convention (articles stipulating rights to liberty, freedom of expression and limitation on use of restrictions on rights) and awarded him compensation of 20,000 Euros, which Russia paid.
On 02/02/2021 the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe stated that Navalny should not have been arrested because the criminal conviction had been considered arbitrary and unreasonable.
See similar cases that Amnesty International admits that Alexei Navalny is a mere criminal; that the ECHR confirmed Navalny prosecution was not politically motivated; that Navalny’s arrest was in compliance with lawful procedures because he has a suspended sentence or that the ECHR states that there were no political motivations in the 2014 Yves Rocher fraud case against Alexei Navalny.