STRASBOURG, April 22. /TASS/. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is calling on Russia to release blogger Alexey Navalny before June and ensure proper healthcare for him while he is in prison, reads the resolution adopted on Thursday at the last spring session of the assembly in Strasbourg.
The resolution was backed by 105 parliamentarians, 26 opposed and 11 more abstained.
"The Assembly therefore calls on the Russian Federation <…> to release Mr. Navalny immediately and in any event before the next ‘human rights’ meeting of the Committee of Ministers in June 2021," the document reads. "Pending his release, [the Assembly calls] to provide Mr. Navalny with all necessary medical care, including examination and treatment by a doctor of his choice, and to ensure that his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights and domestic law are fully respected."
According to the Council of Europe schedule, this meeting is planned to be held on June 7-9. The call is reinforced with a reference to the demand of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued on February 17, 2021, calling for immediate release of Alexey Navalny.
Debates
"Six representatives of the [Russian] delegation signed up to take part in the debates on this topic, which shows that we are ready for conversation. However, we want our arguments to be heard as well and the conversation to not turn into a one-way street case," Russian Senator Sergei Fabrichny said. "Navalny was convicted for violating the procedure set out by law. I have repeatedly underlined at the meeting of the PACE legal affairs committee that our country ratified the European Convention on Human Rights and enshrined it in our legislation but we did not agree with the idea that the judicial body would broadly interpret European documents and independently change its standing order to fit a specific case."
"The world is drowning in the grip of the coronavirus, hundreds of thousands of children and women are falling victims to domestic abuse, hundreds of Armenian prisoners of war remain in Azerbaijani prisons but Navalny is still the topic number one for Europe in our organization. Yes, I do want human rights to be respected and want everyone to have the right to freely express and realize their political ideas," Armenian lawmaker Naira Zohrabyan emphasized. "The Council of Europe has turned into a certain anti-Russian club in the last few years, which runs counter to fundamental values of our structure. We should not try to use this false agenda to square accounts with countries that you have political and geopolitical differences with, it is not fair."
At the same time, most lawmakers from Western countries, the Baltic States and Ukraine delivered similar statements, noting that ECHR decisions should be implemented and demanding Navalny’s release.
Navalny case
Navalny, convicted twice with the sentences being originally suspended, was put on a wanted list for multiple violations of court restrictions imposed on him in the Yves Rocher case. On January 17, he was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetievo airport. On February 2, a court made a decision to replace his suspended prison sentence with a real one. He is serving a prison term in penal colony No. 2 in the Vladimir Region.
On April 5, Navalny was transferred to the penal colony’s medical unit after being diagnosed with an acute respiratory illness during a routine medical examination. According to the Vladimir Region’s office of the federal penitentiary service, on April 9 he was transferred back to his unit after his condition improved. The regional penitentiary service office said Navalny had tested negative for tuberculosis and coronavirus infection. Doctors found his condition satisfactory. Yet, the regional penitentiaries office said doctors had eventually made a decision to transfer Navalny to a local hospital for convicts.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that emphatic calls from a number of countries addressed to Russia, as well as the media campaign over the Navalny case were aimed exclusively at destabilizing the political situation.