The defense team for opposition politician Alexei Navalny has appealed a court ruling on extending his probation period in the Yves Rocher case by one year, lawyer Vadim Kobzev told Interfax.
“We’ve filed an appeal with the Moscow City Court, asking it to reverse the district court ruling on extending Alexei’s [Navalny’s] probation period and turn down the Federal Penitentiary Service’s motion,” Kobzev said on August 14.
The date for hearing the appeal has not yet been set, he said.
Navalny’s defense team also appealed an administrative fine of 300,000 rubles for a repeat violation of the rules regulating the organization and holding of rallies and demonstrations. “We have filed an appeal against a district court ruling on imposing an administrative fine on my client,” Kobzev said.
Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky District Court ruled on December 30, 2014 to find brothers Alexei and Oleg Navalny guilty of fraud and embezzlement of Yves Rocher assets and gave Alexei Navalny a suspended sentence of three years and six months in prison and five years of probation period and Oleg Navalny three years and six months in a general security penitentiary.
The Russian Criminal Correction Code stipulates that, during the probation period, a person having a suspended conviction is supposed to prove his correction by his behavior. The probation period is counted from the moment the conviction takes legal effect. The time that has passed since the pronouncement of the sentence is counted toward the total length of the probation period.
The Federal Penitentiary Service had told Interfax earlier that it had forwarded a motion to a court seeking the extension of Navalny’s probation period, motivating its request by the fact that he had been held administratively liable for taking part in an unauthorized protest demonstration on June 12.
Moscow’s Simonovsky District Court ruled on August 4 to grant the Federal Penitentiary Service’s motion and extend Navalny’s probation period by one year until December 30, 2020.
The day before this, the Simonovsky Court had imposed a 300,000-ruble fine on Navalny for a repeat violation of the rules regulating the organization and holding of rallies and demonstrations.
Navalny’s supporters held promotion events in Moscow and other cities across Russia on July 8-9, during which they distributed information on him and his views.
Moscow police qualified the circulation of leaflets by Navalny’s supporters on July 8-9 as a public event, of which its organizers had to notify the city administration.
