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Russian Penal Service wants real prison term for opposition activist Navalny

This is not the first attempt by the Federal Penitentiary Service to change Navalny’s suspended sentence for a real prison term
Alexei Navalny (center) Mikhail Pochuyev/TASS
Alexei Navalny (center)
© Mikhail Pochuyev/TASS

MOSCOW, July 21. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service has requested a court of law to change opposition activist Alexei Navalny’s suspended sentence for a real prison term in the Yves Rocher fraud case for systematic breaches.

"We request the court to consider cancelling the suspended sentence awarded by the appeals board of the Moscow City Court and enforcing the punishment earlier imposed by Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky Court," the Federal Penitentiary Service said in a statement posted on Navalny’s website.

As Navalny’s lawyer Vadim Kobzev told TASS, the hearing has been scheduled for August 1 at Moscow’s Lyublinsky district court.

According to the Federal Penitentiary Service, Navalny is systematically breaching the duties placed upon him as a person with a suspended sentence. The blogger failed more than twice in 2015 to appear for registration on the scheduled day without valid reasons.

In the period of September 28 to October 1, 2015, he failed to appear as he was on vacation, about which he had not timely informed the inspectorate.

On October 15, Navalny failed to appear because he didn’t feel well. However, he didn’t apply for medical assistance and didn’t submit confirming documents to the inspector. On November 5, Navalny also didn’t arrive at the inspectorate owing to his short-term leave, the Federal Penitentiary Service said.

This is not the first attempt by the Federal Penitentiary Service to change Navalny’s suspended sentence for a real prison term. Earlier, Moscow’s Lyublinsky court didn’t grant the Federal Penitentiary Service’s petition.

Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky Court ruled on December 30, 2014 to find Alexei Navalny and his brother Oleg Navalny guilty of embezzling funds of Yves Rocher Company. The court handed down a 3.5-year suspended sentence to Alexei Navalny and sentenced his brother to 3.5 years in prison.