On Thursday, April 29, Moscow’s Babushkinsky District Court rejected Alexey Navalny’s appeal against the verdict in the “war veteran defamation” case. Navalny took part in the hearing via a video link from prison. This was the first time the opposition politician had been seen by the public since coming off a 24-day hunger strike, which lasted from March 31 to April 23. During a recess, Navalny told his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, that he looks “like a skeleton” and that his weight had dropped to 72 kilograms (159 pounds) — Navalny said this is how much he weighed as a teenager, Meduza’s correspondent reported.
Babushkinsky District Court Press Service