Navalny, Human Rights and Russia
The European Court of Human Rights has ordered Russia to release Alexey Navalny from prison.
Russia is a signatory to the European convention on human rights and the big question now is whether President Putin will face up to his obligations under the international treaty which Russia ratified in 1998.
Read the full report via the link below to The Times.
European court orders Russia to release Alexei Navalny
The European Court of Human Rights said that Alexei Navalny was at risk in prison - Photo EPA
By Marc Bennetts - The Times
The European Court of Human Rights has ordered Russia to release Alexei Navalny, prompting an angry response from Moscow.
The court ruled that Russia was unable to provide sufficient safeguards for the Kremlin critic’s life and health, citing the circumstances of his arrest. It warned that a failure to release him immediately would represent a breach of the European human rights convention, of which Russia is a signatory.
It is thought to be the first time the European Court of Human Rights has ordered Russia to set a convict free.
Navalny, 44, was arrested last month on arrival in Moscow from Berlin, where he had been recovering from a near-deadly nerve agent poisoning that he attributed to President Putin. Navalny was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison on fraud charges that he said were politically motivated. The European court did not examine the merits of the case.
Konstantin Chuychenko, Russia’s justice minister, said that the European court order was unprecedented and represented “clear and crude” interference in domestic affairs. “The demand is deliberately unenforceable since in accordance with Russian law there are no legal grounds for the release of this person from custody,” he said.
Maria Zakharova, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, accused the court of destroying the framework of international law. Tatiana Stanovaya, a political analyst, said that the ruling would “provoke rage” in Moscow.
The court said that Russia had not identified the people who had tried to kill Navalny, meaning that he would be in danger inside prison. In December he tricked an FSB agent into admitting there had been a plot to kill him by smearing novichok on his underpants. Russia has refused to investigate what it calls Navalny’s “illness”.
He is being held in a cell at the prison in Moscow where Sergei Magnitsky, a whistleblowing lawyer, died in 2009 after alleged mistreatment. Russia had argued to the court that Navalny’s cell was under video surveillance and that there was no threat to his wellbeing.
More than 11,000 people were arrested during nationwide protests to call for Navalny’s release on January 23 and 31. His allies recently called a temporary halt to demonstrations and said they would use international lobbying to secure his freedom. The Kremlin has accused Navalny of being a CIA agent but has provided no evidence.
The European court’s decision was based on its Rule 39, which is often used to compel countries to free illegal immigrants who would face torture or death if deported. Although Russia is a member of the Council of Europe, which oversees the work of the European Court of Human Rights, it has failed to implement some of its rulings.
Olga Mikhailova, Navalny’s lawyer, said that Russia would be the first country to defy a Rule 39 order. “As far as I know, rulings by the European court on Rule 39 have been implemented by all countries. I don’t know why Navalny should be an exception,” she said.
The European Court of Human Rights has ordered Russia to release Alexei Navalny, prompting an angry response from Moscow.
The court ruled that Russia was unable to provide sufficient safeguards for the Kremlin critic’s life and health, citing the circumstances of his arrest. It warned that a failure to release him immediately would represent a breach of the European human rights convention, of which Russia is a signatory.
It is thought to be the first time the European Court of Human Rights has ordered Russia to set a convict free.
Navalny, 44, was arrested last month on arrival in Moscow from Berlin, where he had been recovering from a near-deadly nerve agent poisoning that he attributed to President Putin. Navalny was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison on fraud charges that he said were politically motivated. The European court did not examine the merits of the case.
Konstantin Chuychenko, Russia’s justice minister, said that the European court order was unprecedented and represented “clear and crude” interference in domestic affairs. “The demand is deliberately unenforceable since in accordance with Russian law there are no legal grounds for the release of this person from custody,” he said.
Maria Zakharova, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, accused the court of destroying the framework of international law. Tatiana Stanovaya, a political analyst, said that the ruling would “provoke rage” in Moscow.
The court said that Russia had not identified the people who had tried to kill Navalny, meaning that he would be in danger inside prison. In December he tricked an FSB agent into admitting there had been a plot to kill him by smearing novichok on his underpants. Russia has refused to investigate what it calls Navalny’s “illness”.
He is being held in a cell at the prison in Moscow where Sergei Magnitsky, a whistleblowing lawyer, died in 2009 after alleged mistreatment. Russia had argued to the court that Navalny’s cell was under video surveillance and that there was no threat to his wellbeing.
More than 11,000 people were arrested during nationwide protests to call for Navalny’s release on January 23 and 31. His allies recently called a temporary halt to demonstrations and said they would use international lobbying to secure his freedom. The Kremlin has accused Navalny of being a CIA agent but has provided no evidence.
The European court’s decision was based on its Rule 39, which is often used to compel countries to free illegal immigrants who would face torture or death if deported. Although Russia is a member of the Council of Europe, which oversees the work of the European Court of Human Rights, it has failed to implement some of its rulings.
Olga Mikhailova, Navalny’s lawyer, said that Russia would be the first country to defy a Rule 39 order. “As far as I know, rulings by the European court on Rule 39 have been implemented by all countries. I don’t know why Navalny should be an exception,” she said.
