On Tuesday, February 2, Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny appeared in a Moscow court on Tuesday in a bizarre and heated hearing in which the politician ridiculed suggestions he should have communicated with parole officers while he was in a coma. There was a large security presence outside of the court ahead of the hearing and soon, the first detentions of Navalny’s supporters have begun.
This was reported by the Telegram channel @Lshot.
Tuesday's hearing opened under a heavy security presence, with riot police securing the court building and cordoning off the general area with police vehicles, trucks and vans. Nearby streets were open but closed to pedestrians and protesters with barricades. Navalny will be present in court in person, not by video link from the pre-trial detention centre, as it used to be.
Several arrests took place in the Preobrazhenskaya Square subway station ( the closest station to the Moscow City Court). The arrests were “slow and calm”, as the security officers located their vehicles right opposite to the subway exit.
The public transport near the subway station "Preobrazhenskaya Square" is temporarily suspended. Trams and buses near Krasnobogatyrskaya Street have changed routes at the request of the police.
The hearing takes place against the backdrop of widespread anti-government protests. Tens of thousands of Russians have taken to the streets across the country for two straight weekends to support Navalny and demand his release. A court decision to jail Navalny will likely only inflame protesters.
Diplomatic representatives of 18 foreign countries arrived in the Moscow City Court.
According to the CNN, in court, Navalny demanded to know how he could have better-informed authorities of his whereabouts while comatose.
"Can you explain to me how else I was supposed to fulfil the terms of my probation and notify where I am?" he said from his glass enclosure in the courtroom.
A prison service representative responded by saying should have provided documents to explain the serious reasons that prevented him from showing up for inspections.
"Coma?" Navalny shot back. "Why are you sitting here and telling the court you didn't know where I was? I fell into a coma, then I was in the ICU, then in rehabilitation. I contacted my lawyer to send you a notice. You had the address, my contact details. What else could I have done to inform you?" he said.
"The President of our country said live on air he let me go to get treatment in Germany and you didn't know that too?"
Russian authorities had repeatedly threatened to jail Navalny if he returned from Germany to Russia. Navalny's lawyers previously told CNN they had little hope for his release and criticized the Kremlin's control of the country's courts.
In their defence, they argued the prison service was well aware of Navalyny's whereabouts as it received a notice from him in early December. His lawyers also presented a letter from Berlin's Charite Clinic showing that he was in rehabilitation up until his return to Russia.
Navalny was detained two weeks ago upon his return to Moscow from Berlin, accused of failing to meet his parole terms under a 2014 suspended sentence for embezzlement -- a case he has dismissed as politically motivated. Prison authorities are now seeking to replace his suspended sentence with a 3.5-year prison sentence. Navalny, a perennial thorn in President Vladimir Putin's side, had spent five months in Germany recovering from Novichok poisoning before his return to Moscow on January 17. He has blamed the attack on Russian security services and Putin himself, accusations that the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.