Thread by @fulelo

The judge asks Russia opp politician Alexey Navalny at the start of his trial: "Where do you live?"

Navalny: "Now in jail number 1"

https://twitter.com/tvrain/status/1356518880286552064

Judge: Please introduce yourself.

Navalny: You yourself must introduce yourself, according (to the procedure) order, are you Judge Okuneva?

Judge: Repnikova

Next judge Repnikova introducing the parties: Prosecutor Yekaterina Frolova, Head of Branch No. 15 of the Federal Penitentiary Service Alexander Yarmolin, Navalny's defenders Vadim Kobzev and Olga Mikhailova.

Prosecutor Frolova says she is against the filming of the court session by journalists - this may interfere with the process. Yarmolin from the penitentary service supports her.
Navalny's lawyers are in favour of filming.
Court however only allows the press office to record.

Navalny's lawyer, Vadim Kobzev's asks the court to attach a copy of the notification dated Jan 9 stating that @Navalny will not show up for registration, as he is on vacation outside the Moscow region. The lawyer says that the penit.service representative received a notification

besides Mr Kobzev asks the court to admit a medical document from the Berlin clinic Charite as proof that Mr Navalny was in out-patient treatment until Jan 15 and that he couldn’t show up to meet his probation officer until then.

Lawyer Olga Mikhailova asks to attach the European Court of Human Rights decision in the case "Navalny v. Russia".

Judge Repnikova reads the documents aloud, mentions the decision of the ECHR, which says that the "Yves Rocher case" was reopened due to new circumstances.

Prosecutor Frolova asks for time to read the documents - 10-minute break in court.

Prosecutor Frolova is not against the submission of documents, but notes that the copy of the notification dated January 9 was Thursday, and Navalny had to appear on the first and third working Mondays of the month, that is, January 13 and 27.

As for the certificate of Jan 15, it was not presented to the penitentiary service, the prosecutor says, plus it does not say what happened to Alexey Navalny from September 23, 2020 to January 15, 2021. (reminder for those new to it: he was recuperating from Novichok poisoning)

now rep of the penitentiary service, Yarmolin speaking. He says Alexey Navalny committed numerous violations of the probationary period, hence it had to be extended for another year.

Acc to Yarmolin, Alexey Navalny committed more than 50 violations of the probationary period and public order, and he has a record of a failure to appear for registration on the first and third Mondays of the month (my note: as he was recuperating from Novichok poisoning abroad)

Yarmolin says that Alexey Navalny was treated at the Charite clinic until September 23, after which he was in outpatient treatment, lived in a hotel; travelled around Germany, but did not contact the penitentiary service.

!!! Alexander Yarmolin, head of №15 branch of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, is asking the court to replace Navalny’s suspended sentence with a 3.5 year prison term, as he claims opp politician @navalny breached the terms of his probation.

'why wasn't a submission sent earlier then, until December 29, 2020?' the prosecutor asks Yarmolin, rep of the Russia state penitentiary service at the court hearing of opposition politician Alexey Navalny.

'For each violation warnings were issued to Navalny', says Yarmolin. 'It was assumed that he would change his attitude and take the path of correction, but he did not draw the right conclusions.'

Navalny's lawyer Kobzev asks rep of penitentiary service, Yarmolin:
'In the form (of the Navalny case) my contact is indicated, the questionnaire contains details of my wife and mother. When they started carrying out a search, did they try to contact me and @navalny's family?'

'Why did they send me a text message on December 28, the day before the search?' so Navalny's lawyer Kobzev.
'We tried to contact a lawyer representing the interests of Navalny in the criminal case. But it is the convicted person himself who is obliged to report, says Yarmolin.

- Why didn't you try to contact your relatives?
- There was no one at home, we had no contact information of his wife.
—And at two trips to the place of residence of Navalny, did you ask (about Navalny) the employees of the private security company who guard the house ?

- Yes, they said, he left for treatment.
- Did the guards explain anything about the treatment?
Yarmolin replies with something indistinct.
- You do have two reports saying that acc to the guards,he left for treatment. The whole country knew that he was being treated (abroad).

The prosecutor asks to make a comment: the reports have not yet been examined, the judge makes a remark, Navalny's lawyer, Kobzev, makes a request to investigate these reports.

Navalny's lawyer Kobzev asks if the notice indicated the address of @Navalny's residence in Germany. Yarmolin says yes, it was indicated; next, Kobzev asks if the Penitentiary Service tried to check upon him.

To this Yarmolin replies that the penitentiary service operates on the territory of Russia, and can only carry out checks at the place of residence
Navalny's lawyer Mikhaylova: 'I understand correctly that, despite the fact that you had information about Navalny's whereabouts,

you did nothing to check upon him and now pretend that he disappeared?'
Yarmolin repeats that the convicted person is obliged to report to the Penitentiary service; Kobzev objects saying that Navalny did his best to report.

Mikhailova asks why the penit. service did not send anything to the address of the hotel (in Germany) where Navalny lived:
- Did you know his actual location?
- No.
- Did you receive a notification?
- Yes.
-Was his address listed there?
- The hotel was indicated there.

Acc to Mikhailova the Russian authorities say that Navalny was treated in Germany thanks to them, at the same time the penitentiary service says it didn't know where Alexey @Navalny was. Prosecutor Frolova protests, saying the lawyer is evaluating the answers of pen service rep

'May I ask a question?' Alexey Navalny interjects. 'Comrade Captain, do you respect the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin?' Prosecutor Frolova objects, the judge agrees with her. Navalny carries on:

'We are constantly interrupted by this young woman (devushka the word he uses) with a lieutenant colonel's shoulder straps. She shouldn't interrupt us; when the penit service representative is swimming in a puddle and cannot say a word, a lieutenant colonel comes to his rescue.'

Navalny recalls that Putin said in his presser that it is thanks to him that @navalny could be taken to Germany for treatment.
'You didn't know that either?' Navalny asks penitentiary service rep Yarmolin.
'The period of your treatment was taken into account by us.'

'Please explain to the court how could i have better fulfilled my obligations?' says Navalny. 'I fell into a coma, (later)was able to meet with lawyers and sent you the paperwork, you had my address and all contacts. I continued the treatment, finished it and returned to Moscow.'

'What else could I have done, and could have done better? You look people in the face and just say that I was not at home.'

Yarmolin notes that the FSIN has its own address, and it would have been possible to send documents there.
Navalny asks 'Maybe you wanted my physical therapy notes?' and explains 'a coma is when you lie unconscious, and then you are treated'.

The position of the penitentiary service as follows: it counts only the period of Navalny's treatment in the Charite in August-September, other recuperation period is not considered part of his treatment.

Navalny's lawyer Kobzev is perplexed as the judge has just read out a certificate from a doctor from "Charite" that after his discharge from the hospital Alexey Navalny was on outpatient treatment, and due to the severity of his illness, he needed a long rehabilitation.

'I couldn't get through to the penit. service or to you personally, you turned off the phones,' Navalny's lawyer Mikhailova says. She recalls she wasn't allowed to show one of the certificates during @Navalny's arrest @ the airport as she was immediately cut off from her client

The hearing of Russia opposition politician Alexey Navalny has been suspended for two hours

After the break at the trial of Russia opposition politician Alexey Navalny we expect a speech by the prosecutor, the two lawyers of @Navalny and Mr Navalny himself.

in the break Navalny's lawyer Olga Mikhaylova told @bbcrussian that ' there will be no debate here. Everyone will speak once, and the judge will leave for a decision. And there will be no last word'

Judge Repnikova returns to the courtroom. The question of who will speaks first is being decided. Navalny asks the prosecutor and the penit. service rep to speak first, then the defence, but the prosecutor is against - and the judge gives the floor to Mr @Navalny.

The speech of Russia opp politician Alexey Navalny in court:
'Can you hear me well? I would like to start with a discussion of a legal issue, which seems to me to be the main one and a little overlooked from this discussion. Everything looks a little strange.'

'Two people are sitting here and one of them says: let's put Navalny in prison, because he did not appear on Mondays, but on Thursdays. The other one says: let’s put Navalny in prison, because, having come out of a coma, he did not come to us to report.'

'But I'd like to say a few words about the small elephant in the room, so that everyone wd pay attention, the entire press&all people, to the fact that the essence of the matter is to put me in prison in a case in which I was found not guilty & which is recognised as fabricated.

(Navalny speech in court, cont) 'this is not my opinion. If we open a textbook on criminal law - I hope, Your Honor, you have done this a couple of times in your life-, Russia is a member of the Council of Europe,'

'and the European Court has stated that there is no corpus delicti [in the Yves Rocher case]. The case based on which I am in the cage is completely fabricated. Moreover, even the Russian Federation has admitted it - halfway - by paying me a compensation.'

'Despite this, my brother served three and a half years. I week before my probationary period ended, I was brought to the Simonovsky court, without my defence and the probationary period was extended for another year.'

'Nevertheless I still continue to be tried in this case, despite already having been declared innocent and the case fabricated, the state, with the stubbornness of a maniac is trying to sentence me.'

'Someone really doesn't want me not to take a single step across the territory of our country as a free person. And we know who this is, the reason is the hatred and fear of one person living in a bunker,'

'I hurt him to death by the mere fact of surviving after they tried to kill me on his orders', says Navalny.
Prosecutor Frolova asks to make a remark to Alexey Navalny; he retorts: "I do not need your remark!"

Prosecutor Frolova asks what issue is currently being considered; Navalny's lawyer Mikhailova asks to make a remark to the prosecutor. Navalny clarifies that he is expressing his opinion exactly according to today's presentation of the penitentiary service.

Alexey Navalny carries on:
'And the fact that the representative of the prosecution is trying to interrupt me and shut me up, also shows what is happening here. Let's continue.

I mortally hurt him by the fact that I survived thanks to good people, pilots and doctors,'

'then I did not hide, living somewhere in a bunker under protection, and then a terrible thing happened - I even participated in the investigation of my own poisoning, and we showed and proved that Putin, using the FSB, carried out an attempted murder,'(verbatim of court session)

'and that I was not the only one like that,now many people know this and will still find out, and this drives the little thieving man in the bunker crazy. It turned out that in order to cope with a political opponent who has no TV and a political party, you just need to kill him'

'with chemical weapons. Everyone saw that he was just a small (=unimportant) official who was randomly put into the role of the president, who never participated in a debate, and this is his only method - to try to kill people.' (verbatim of Alexey Navalny's speech in court)

Navalny continues: 'No matter how much [Putin] tries to pose as a geopolitician, he resents me because he will go down in history as a poisoner. There was Alexander the Liberator or Yaroslav the Wise, but this man'll go down in history as the poisoner of boxer shorts' (underwear)

'Police guarding me, half of Moscow is cordoned off because we have shown that he is demanding to steal the boxer shorts from his opponents and smear them with chemical weapons.

The main aim of this process is to intimidate a huge number of people, this is how it works.'

'They imprison one to frighten millions. We have 20 million people below the poverty line, tens of millions live without the slightest prospects - life in Moscow is more or less ok, but if you drive 100 kilometers away - it is rubbish, the whole country lives in like that...'

'and they are trying to silence them with such show trials.
The main thing I want to say is that this process, I very much hope, will not be perceived as a signal for them to be more afraid. Rosgvardia, and the cage is a demonstration of their weakness '

'it is impossible to arrest millions or hundreds of thousands, and I really hope that people will become more and more aware of this, and when they realise -and such a moment will come,- you cannot arrest the whole country,'

'because all the rest of the country gets zilch of national wealth, they get zero! I am sitting in my cell and I can only hear (news about) how pasta and eggs have become more expensive! 2021, in an oil-exporting country, you have deprived these people of prospects ...'

'and now you are trying to intimidate them.'
The judge tells Navalny he is not at the rally. “I’m already right there,” Alexey @navalny replies. 'This is all a show. All I'm saying is related to this performance.'

'this happens when lawlessness and arbitrariness are the essence of the political system, and this is terrible, but it can be worse: when lawlessness and arbitrariness dress themselves up in the uniform of a prosecutor and in a judicial robe. '

'And in this case, the duty of every person is not to obey the laws that are dressed in these robes, not to obey you.' says Navalny.
'Alexey Anatolyevich, are you urging ...' the judge intervenes.
'I urge ... all right, let us return to your show.'

'Let's not get involved in politics!' so judge Repnikova.
'How can we not engage in politics?! I have formed such an opinion about this show, I have no other opinion. When arbitrariness and lawlessness have put on your uniforms, it is the duty of every person to disobey.'

'And I fight as best I can and will do it, despite the fact that I am now under the control of people who like to smear everything with chemical weapons, and no one will give even three kopecks for my life.' (Alexey Navalny's speech in court)

'There are many good things in Russia now, and the best thing is the very people who are not afraid, who don't lower their eyes, don't look at the table and won't give our country to a bunch of corrupt officials who will swap it for palaces and aquadiskotheques. '

Navalny's lawyer Kobzev takes over,he explains that Mr @Navalny did not hide from surveillance and that he was put on the wanted list illegally, that his whereabouts were always known to the penitentiary service of Russia - this follows from certificates & docs presented to court

Navalny's lawyer Kobzev: “The penitentiary service has read the first two paragraphs, but not the rest, and it’s hard to ask tricky questions,' Kobzev returns to the certificate, which says that after being discharged from hospital,Mr Navalny continued to receive treatment.

'He just recovered - that's all,' Kobzev adds. 'At the same time, they watched his numerous interviews, where he says that he learned to walk, but he couldn't lift a thing from the floor, couldn't use a computer. He learned all the elementary things anew, everyone knows this.'

They had to either stop, or, well, if they don’t believe, they should have checked the information, if they would have sent a letter to the (Simonovsky) court - it would have landed there and the documents would have been received '

'it would have got there and they would have received an answer. But no, they didn’t call me, they didn’t call for a month, they didn’t call my wife or mother -although even the guards in the parking lot told them that Navalny was receiving treatment. They didn't try to contact'

'It was assumed that after completing his treatment, Navalny would return to Moscow and immediately go for the inspection, but he was detained, and even the next day it was impossible to attach the certificate, because the certificate had not yet been translated.' Lawyer Kobzev

'Close circle: he was treated, cured and flew home. For his part, he did everything possible so that the prosecutor's office or the court could not reproach him for missing his turn and not showing up.' Navalny's lawyer Kobzev adds there is an order from the Ministry of Justice,'

which contains a chapter on the initial search activities of convicts, and the order says that they are carried out from the moment when it becomes known about the evasion of the convicted person on the basis of a report, and there is no such report in Mr Navalny's case file.

Navalny's lawyer Kobzev points out that the penit. service' inspection did not try to find out from @Navalny's relatives where he was. Furthermore, the inspectorate should have sent a notice about the wanted list to the pen. service, but this document too is missing

Navalny's lawyer Kobzev: 'The procedure for conducting the initial search - as I have demonstrated - was grossly violated in several points. This, in my opinion, makes the decree by which Navalny was put on the wanted list illegal. Separately, I would like to note that..'

'A day before the inspection somehow they found the phone number of lawyer Kobzev and press secretary Yarmysh.' carries on Kobzev 'Once his place (of residence) was known, he could not be qualified as a person in hiding - if a person for some reason does not walk, '

'(doesnt show up) the question should be "No show for valid reasons or non-valid reasons?" This was not done. '
'Navalny, from the moment of his poisoning until January 15, did not show up at apptmts with the penitentiary service for a good reason.' says lawyer Kobzev

'To my question - is poisoning a valid reason - the representative of the Federal Penitentiary Service said yes,' - concludes Navalny's lawyer Kobzev. He that @Navalny was detained illegally and, regardless of "the alleged violations at the beginning of 2020," should be released

lawyer Kobzev: 'Navalny's poisoning has been called a political Chernobyl by many, so I want to end my speech with a quote from the HBO series "Chernobyl". As Professor Legasov said in court, Dyatlov violated all possible rules. He brought the reactor to the brink of destruction'

'No one in the hall that night knew that the shutdown button would serve as a detonator. Dear judge, unlike Dyatlov, we know it now.'

'Kobzev, we will hang your portrait here later', is Navalny's response to his defence lawyer's speech

Navalny's lawyer Mikhaylova says she'll talk about tedious data - starting with the fact that Navalny regularly showed up at the penit.service apptmts on Thursdays, then the inspection decided that he should have come on Mondays since February, then a pandemic began.

Mikhailova says that they came to Navalny's home on September 16, when he was in a coma (in a hospital in Germany), and the notice (mentioned before) in December, was “left” somewhere near his Moscow apartment.

Navalny's lawyer Mikhaylova believes that the penit. service officers misled their boss when saying they did not know where @Navalny was. At the same time, she adds, the Russian Constitution recognises the principles of international law,'

'and the ECHR ruled that the verdict in the Yves Rocher case was passed with violation of rights of the Navalny brothers. Despite this, the authorities did not stop considering Alexey @Navalny guilty, and the probationary period was extended after the decision of the ECHR.'

Mikhailova points out that Russia is obliged to comply with the decisions of the ECHR and it has paid compensation in the Yves Rocher case (to mr Navalny), but did not overturn the verdict. At the same time, the decision of the ECHR stated ..

that the proceedings were fraught with arbitrariness, which deprived all legal guarantees of any meaning. In light of the revealed breaches, it is impossible to impose a valid punishment based to the sentence in the Yves Rocher case, so Mikhailova asks to stop the proceedings.

prosecutor Frolova to Navalny: 'Is it true that from January to August 2020, that is, before the hospitalisation, you deliberately missed registration at the penit. serv. inspection six times: twice in January, once in February, March and July, and also in August?'

Navalny: 'the answer is this is wrong. My obligation, established by the verdict was to appear twice a month. Since 2014, for five years, I have come to your shady bureau (of pen. serv. inspection) twice a month, I went for several years on Thursdays, '

'then they wanted me to go on Mondays. I am a healthy person, with a family, and for several years, even knowing that the court's decision was illegal, I went twice a month, on Thursdays, almost always, and this was absolutely fine with the inspection.'

'Then they changed it, but during the pandemic, it was on Thursdays. If this does not suit you, say so - we demand that Navalny be put in prison, because he did not go on Mondays, but on Thursdays.' says Alexey @navalny

Prosecutor Frolova repeats the question, Navalny answers:
'No, in spite of the fact that the (previous court) decision is fake, nevertheless, it says “must appear twice a month” - so I did.'

Prosecutor Frolova to Navalny: 'Do you confirm that each time after missing the registration you were warned about the possibility of replacing the suspended sentence with real detention?'

Navalny: 'I confirm that this fabricated case was regularly used to stop my political activities. Every time we released an investigation about your overlords - literally - about the (attorney general) Chayka ...'

Prosecutor Frolova interrupts him and repeats the question, Navalny demands to listen to him: "I have no button, you cannot talk over me." He then repeats that the case was used to imprison him; the prosecutor again complains that she did not hear an answer to the question.

“As they say in jail # 1, it's your problem that you didn't hear me,” Navalny says. 'I confirm that the penit. service inspectorate tried to intimidate me that they would jail me.'
The prosecutor asks to notice that no response has been received.

Prosecutor Frolova asks if it is true that the penit service didn't bother Navalny and his representatives while he was being treated at the Charite clinic. @Navalny replies that he was in a coma, and nothing bothered him at all, '

and then for quite a long time he did not remember anything and did not recognise anyone.
'However, when I left the hospital, I thought - what about my own darling inspection? I had not yet started walking, but was able to think, so I contacted a lawyer and decided

'that as soon as I had the address of my location, we would notify them about it. I imagine that I’m lying there all wired up in drips and my wife comes up to me and says: “Dear, I inform you that at this time the penit. service does not bother you,' so Navalny.

'Next question', so prosecutor Frolova, 'In the notification of November 23, you indicated that you were treated at the Charité until September 23, yes or no?'
'I'm just taken aback what petty lies you are peddling', says Navalny.

'You are a worthy daughter of the regime. Just check in the materials of the court. I was hospitalised there. There is outpatient, and there is inpatient, here, I layed on a hospital bed until September 23.' says Navalny

Prosecutor Frolova: 'Is it true that this was the only notification sent to the FPS after discharge from the hospital?'
Navalny: 'I didn't quite get the question. I didn't have to send a letter to the penit. serv. every week.

'You inform them that you are ill, at the end of the illness you take a sick leave note, then when undergoing rehabilitation, they took tests from me, I took another certificate - that's all. Was I supposed to [send letters] once a week?' so Navalny

'The inspection has had the phones of my wife, mother, lawyers - they should have contacted them.'
Frolova repeats the question: "Was this the only notification?"
“The answer is as follows: I informed the inspection as many times as I should by law,” Navalny replies.

next question from Prosecutor Frolova:
'Given your legal education, did you realise that even two missed occasions for registration may be a sufficient reason (for real jail term)?'
Lawyer Kobzev asks to remove the question: "We are not at a (uni) exam." Navalny still responding:

Navalny: 'Considering my legal knowledge, I know that this process is impossible, that it is impossible to have my trial in the Khimki police station, that it is impossible to keep a detainee in a pre-trial detention center, to be tried in the Simonovsky court without lawyers..'

'all this is simply impossible. You cannot talk about the law with such pressure, the three of you are representatives of the most real arbitrariness.' so Navalny.

Prosecutor Frolova:
'Does Navalny understand that the penit. ervice has fixed both grounds for replacing the suspended sentence with a real one during 2020, both before and after his hospitalisation? That is, two passes of registration and no-show within 30 days.'

Navalny disagrees: before the hospitalisation, he attended twice a month, and after the hospitalisation, he informed (the penit. service about the treatment. “My God, you are asking such tricky questions -yes or no- as if I was caught in the Kostroma forest! I returned to Moscow!

'The penit. service saw that I visited the inspection twice a month and informed them about my location. Therefore, the Federal Penitentiary Service had to make a note: Navalny is an ideal convict, embarked on the path of correction,' adds Alexey @navalny.

Then prosecutor Frolova talks about thousands of conditionally convicted, whose terms were replaced with real ones, and asks if Navalny thinks an exception should be made for him. Lawyer Mikhailova asks to reject the question, Navalny asks to answer, judge removes the question.

Prosecutor Frolova claims that Navalny is the only one with two suspended sentences; the question is - is it true that, realizing the unprecedented indulgence, he considered it possible for himself to violate the conditions? “You don't have to answer,”
Navalny says he is not

the only one with two suspended sentences. He says that he is one of the few people against whom several criminal cases have been fabricated, and this has been proven. 'I have reason to state that my situation is somewhat unusual, that the authorities are fabricating cases ...

against me so openly that I have successfully appealed all cases to the ECHR,' Navalny says (i will tweet some links to such documents later). He notes that Peskov spoke about 18 thousand cancellations of suspended sentences, the prosecutor - about 11.

“You shd come to an agreement. All these cases are phony, this is a personal grievance of Pres Putin, because he is sitting in his bunker and nothing pleases him, neither aquadiskotheque, nor healing mud, he feels insulted and this is the only reason why you decided to jail me.'

Prosecutor Frolova says that control over a conditionally convicted person is entrusted to the penitentiary system and what will happen to the punishment depends on his behaviour. At the meeting the implementation of conditions by Navalny was considered, a standard procedure.

In Russia, there are more than 15 thousand in 2019, and in 2020 there were more than 11 thousand cases of replacing a suspended sentence with a real one. It follows from the materials that Navalny was sentenced to 3.5 years with a probation period of 5 years,

and he was obliged to appear 2 times a month, the prosecutor continues. She insists that Navalny is the only one who was twice sentenced to a suspended sentence, while his brother Oleg Navalny was sentenced to a real term.

Alexey, the prosecutor says, despite he has been "shown humanism", violated the conditions, so his probationary period was extended for a year, although there were already grounds for replacing the suspended sentence with a real one.

Prosecutor Frolova reiterates that Navalny did not notify the penitentiary system twice a month and did not notify it after coming out of a coma, although he moved freely throughout Germany, so he ignored his obligations.

"This behavior of Navalny and his attitude to the legislation of the Russian Federation allows us to make an unambiguous conclusion that he did not take the path of correction and demonstratively shows disrespect for the law," the prosecutor concludes.

She asks to satisfy the submission and to take Navalny into custody before the decision comes into force, so that the time spent under house arrest shall be included in his term on the basis of one day under house arrest equalling to one day in a penal colony.

SENTENCE ANNOUNCED: The judge finds the FSIN's submission to be satisfied. - Russia opposition politician Alexey Navalny convicted to 2.5 years penal colony

this thread was based on the excellent court reporting of @bbcrussian, @mediazzzona, @novaya_gazeta. thank you for reading it.

If you missed Navalny's speech in court, here is a recording:
youtube.com/channel/UCgxTP…