Olga Mikhailov and Vadim Kobzev were detained at Pokrov Prison, where Navalny was serving his previous sentence, and where the Russian authorities had violated another lawsuit against the opposition leader, in violation of any rights and existing procedural norms.
A Russian court reportedly sentenced Navalny to another nine years in prison on Tuesday, acquitting him of charges of “fraud” and “insulting a judge.”
The trial took place in the Pokrov city court in Vladimir Oblast, where Navalny is serving another sentence. It was an external hearing of the Moscow Lefortov court.
The prosecutor’s office last week demanded that Navalny be sentenced to 13 years in prison and fined 1.2 million rubles (approximately 9,800 euros).
Navalny is currently in a general regime colony. The representative of the prosecutor’s office clarified that in the new case he was demanding deprivation of liberty in a strict regime colony.
The accused party considers the collection of donations in the account of the Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK) established by Navalny and in the private accounts of Navalny’s associates to be fraudulent.
“The funds were raised for a deliberately unachievable purpose – to nominate Navalny for the presidency of Russia,” the prosecutor explained in court the nature of the allegations of fraud.
Of the tens of thousands of people who have donated to Navalny and FBK, only four are victims, and they all supported the prosecution in the process.
Navalny denies his guilt and considers the accusations political.
Judge Margarita Kortova called Yevgeny Vladimirov, an employee of the Russian presidential administration, during the hearing on the Navalny case, according to Ivan Zhdanov, a partner in Navalny. He has information about the judge’s phone calls.
In February last year, Navalny was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for allegedly violating the terms of a suspended prison sentence handed down in 2014 after being treated in Germany for attempted poisoning with the chemical weapon “Novičok”.
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