MOSCOW (RUSSIA) – Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was brought back to court on Friday for a trial on slander charges, which according to him is politically driven amid rising tensions between Russia and the West over his jailing.
In the slander case, Navalny is accused of trying to defame a World War Two veteran who was part of a promotional video supporting constitutional reforms last year allowing Putin to run for two more terms in the Kremlin after 2024 if he wants.
Navalny had called the people in the video as traitors and corrupt lackeys. He accuses authorities of employ the slander charges to taint him.
Although the charge, if proven, can lead to a punishment of up to two years in jail, his lawyer has said that Navalny cannot face a sentence, while in custody because the alleged crime was carried before changes were to made to it as jailable offence.
It continues to be unclear whether the judge in the case agrees with the analysis.
There was tight security at Friday’s court hearing. Police and state bailiffs wearing body armour and carrying weapons were put on charge inside the court and around it and the state prosecutor arrived for the hearing with three bodyguards.
His allies have planned to stage a new kind of protest on Sunday.