SNS Message "Go to the Streets and Resist"
Supporters Announce Large-Scale Protest on the 23rd
[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] Russian opposition activist Aleksei Navalny has reportedly been detained in a detention center in downtown Moscow. Navalny was arrested by authorities shortly after returning from Germany, where he received treatment for poisoning.
According to local media including Interfax on the 19th, Navalny was transferred the previous evening to the No. 1 detention center "Matrosskaya Tishina" under the Federal Penitentiary Service located in the northeastern part of Moscow. Navalny was ordered to be detained for 30 days until the 15th of next month following a pre-trial detention hearing the day before.
After returning on the 17th and being immediately arrested at the airport, Navalny was held at a police station near the airport and underwent trial. He is expected to remain in detention until the trial on converting his suspended sentence into imprisonment scheduled for the 29th.
Earlier, Navalny urged citizens to protest in the streets through social media (SNS) the day before. In a video message posted on Twitter, he appealed, "Do not be afraid, go out to the streets," and added, "Do not go out for me, but for yourselves and your future."
According to 'OVD-Info,' a non-governmental organization (NGO) monitoring political prisoner arrests, over 70 Navalny supporters and journalists were detained by authorities across Russia that day. Supporters plan to hold large-scale rallies nationwide on the 23rd.
Navalny, who has persistently exposed corruption among Russian government officials, collapsed in a coma due to poisoning symptoms while on a flight from Tomsk, Siberia to Moscow in August last year. He was initially hospitalized in Omsk, Siberia, then transferred to a German hospital three days later for treatment, regaining consciousness after 18 days.
Previously, the Moscow branch of the Federal Penitentiary Service had warned that Navalny would be arrested immediately upon his return. He was listed as a wanted person for failing to fulfill the obligations of his suspended sentence related to a 2014 fraud conviction. In December 2014, Navalny was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison with a 5-year suspended sentence for charges including illegally obtaining 31 million rubles (approximately 590 million KRW) from the Russian branch of the French cosmetics company Yves Rocher.
The Russian penitentiary authorities have filed a lawsuit with the Simonov District Court in Moscow to revoke Navalny's suspended sentence and convert it into actual imprisonment, citing violations of the suspended sentence obligations. The authorities explained that Navalny failed to comply with requirements such as regular reporting obligations under the suspended sentence conditions.
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