Moscow Court Approves Sentence To Navalny

He will soon be transferred to a special regime colony.

On Tuesday, September 26, the First Court of Appeal in Moscow approved the sentence of Russian opposition politician Aleksey Navalny and former technical director of the Navalny LIVE YouTube channel Daniel Kholodny in the so-called "extremist case."

On August 4, the Moscow City Court sentenced the opposition politician to another 19 years in a special regime colony and a fine of half a million rubles at a mobile session in the penal colony-6 in Vladimir region, where Navalny was serving a nine-year sentence in another case. He was also given three years' restriction of freedom after his release and a ten-year ban on publishing on the Internet. Kholodny was sentenced to eight years in a general regime colony.

Navalny was found guilty of calling for extremism, creating an NGO that infringes on the rights of citizens, financing extremism, creating an extremist community, involving minors in dangerous acts and rehabilitating Nazism. Daniel Kholodny, in turn, was found guilty of financing extremist activities and participation in the activities of an extremist organisation.

Navalny's lawyer Olga Mikhailova said that the Court of Appeal slightly changed the text of the verdict: now the oppositionist is listed there not as a "particularly dangerous recidivist", but as a "dangerous recidivist". The defence intends to appeal the verdict in cassation instance.

At the same time, TASS notes that the decision of the Court of Appeal means that Aleksey Navalny's sentence has come into force. Consequently, he will soon be transferred to a special regime colony.