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Russia’s top court upholds 2014 conviction of Navalny brothers in Yves Rocher case

Alexei Navalny said the court ignored the position of the European Court of Human Rights

Alexei Navalny Sergei Savostianov/TASS

Alexei Navalny

© Sergei Savostianov/TASS

MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/. Russia’s Supreme Court has upheld the 2014 conviction of Alexei and Oleg Navalny in the Yves Rocher case, which was reheard following an earlier decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that had ruled that there were alleged violations, a TASS correspondent reported.

"The verdict of the Zamoskvoretsky court regarding Alexei and Oleg Navalny will remain unchanged," the judge announced.

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The court satisfied a request from the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office. Deputy Russian Prosecutor General Vladimir Malinovsky earlier asked the court to uphold the verdict. In contrast, attorneys for the defense asked the court to overturn the ruling and halt the proceedings due to the absence of corpus delicti (or ‘the fact of a crime having been actually committed').

Alexei Navalny said the court ignored the position of the European Court of Human Rights. "This decision is a sign that the Supreme Court has defiantly failed to fulfill Russia’s international agreements," he emphasized.

Attorney Olga Mikhailova told TASS that she would go to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. "We will ask the Committee of Ministers to assess this decision, which is a demonstration of contempt for the ECHR decision."

After the Supreme Court’s decision, Oleg Navalny will continue to serve out his sentence in a penal colony until June 30.

On December 30, 2014, Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky Court found the Navalny brothers guilty of embezzling Yves Rocher funds and sentenced Alexei Navalny to a three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence, while Oleg Navalny was handed a three-and-a-half-year sentence in a general-security penal colony.

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