All news

Russian prison officials seek to replace Navalny’s suspended sentence with jail time

According to the prison authorities, Navalny has been constantly failing to meet his obligations under the suspended sentence

MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) has once again submitted a request to a Moscow court to overturn opposition figure Alexey Navalny’s suspended sentence to real jail time under the Yves Rocher embezzlement case, a spokesman for the court told TASS on Tuesday.

Last week, Navalny was released from custody after serving a 25-day administrative arrest for organizing an unauthorized opposition rally in Moscow on June 12, his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh wrote on Twitter.

"The court has registered a request by a deputy head of a branch of the FSIN probation department in Moscow on cancelling Navalny’s suspended sentence and giving him a real prison term. The date of considering this request will be announced soon," a spokesman said.

According to the prison authorities, Navalny has been constantly failing to meet his obligations under the suspended sentence and has also repeatedly committed administrative offenses. The FSIN earlier asked the court to cancel Navalny’s suspended sentence and send him to a penal colony, but none of these attempts bore any success.

On December 30, 2014, Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky Court found the Navalny brothers guilty of embezzling Yves Rocher funds and handed Alexey Navalny a suspended sentence of 3 years and 6 months tacking it along with a probation period of five years. His brother Oleg Navalny was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months behind bars.