Appeal hearing on Alexey Navalny’s prison sentence set for February 20

The Moscow City Court has set a date for opposition politician Alexey Navalny’s appeal against the Simonovsky District Court’s decision to imprison him for allegedly violating the terms of probation in the Yves Rocher case. 

The appeal hearing will begin at 10:00 a.m. Moscow time, on Saturday, February 20.

Moscow Simonovsky Court revoked Navalny’s probation and sentenced him to 3.5 years in prison during a trial in Moscow on February 2. Pending the appellate ruling, Navalny will spend the next two years and eight months in prison due to time previously served under house arrest.

The court case came after Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service filed a complaint against Navalny for allegedly violating his parole while in Germany, where he spent nearly five months recovering after a near-lethal poisoning attack in August 2020. The defense maintained that the politician reported his whereabouts to the prison authorities. Navalny was arrested at a Moscow airport immediately upon returning from Berlin on January 17.