In Russia, opponent Alexei Navalny sentenced to 9 years in prison – The HuffPost

via Associated PressIn Russia, opponent Alexeï Navalny sentenced to 9 years in prisonRUSSIA – Sentence extended. Russia’s most famous opponent, Alexeï Navalny, was sentenced on Tuesday March 22 to nine years in prison for “fraud” and “contempt of court”, noted AFP journalists present at the hearing. judge Margarita Kotova indicated to add to this sentence a year and a half of probation and a fine of 1.2 million rubles, or about 10,000 euros at the daily rate. The charismatic anti-corruption activist and former lawyer, 45, had been on trial since mid-February behind the walls of his penal colony, 100 km east of Moscow, in an improvised court. He appeared at the hearing dressed in his convict uniform, his face emaciated, listening to the statement of the verdict with his hands in his pockets, between two laughs and discussions with his lawyers, according to an AFP journalist on the spot. Evgenia Novozhenina via Reuters Alexei Navalny is sentenced to 9 years in prison on March 22, 2022. The judge, unsurprisingly, found him guilty from the start of the reading of the judgment which could last several hours until the announcement of the sentence . “Navalny has committed a fraud, which is the theft of property from others by an organized group,” Ms. Kotova said, in a rapid, mechanical voice. “Navalny showed disrespect in court, insulting a judge,” she added, a few minutes later. “Putin is afraid of the truth, I have always said so. The fight against censorship, bringing the truth to the people of Russia, remains our priority,” said Alexei Navalny after his conviction in a series of tweets and promised to continue his fight against the Kremlin. His lawyers arrested after the trialExcept an improbable victory on appeal, he will have to be detained in a “severe regime” colony, isolated places and where the conditions are much harsher than in the so-called “general” colonies like that of Pokrov where he is currently incarcerated. According to information from AFP, the activist’s lawyers were arrested after his trial before the penal colony which served as a court. Olga Mikhaïlova and Vadim Kobzev were arrested on the grounds, it seems, that they were obstructing traffic in front of the prison by speaking with the press. Alexeï Navalny has already been serving a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for fraud for a little over a year, in a trumped-up case, according to him. Renowned for his scathing investigations into corruption and the lifestyle of the elites Russians, Alexei Navalny survived a serious poisoning in 2020 for which he holds President Vladimir Putin responsible. He was arrested in early 2021, upon his return to Moscow, after a long convalescence in Germany. See also on The HuffPost: In support of the wife of Alexei Navalny, hundreds of Russian women demonstrated