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I’m outside the courtroom ahead of the Navalny parole hearing. Officers have barred the press from taking photo or video of the hearing. Navalny’s lawyers and his wife Yulia are here, Alexei has also reportedly been brought from his jail cell.
Have just been let in along with maybe 50 press. Can see Navalny in a blue hoodie in a glass holding cell called an aquarium. He’s joking with his wife Yulia, seated in an orange jumper, via a microphone in his cell. There are bailiffs patrolling to make sure we don’t film.
Navalny and his team are demanding that photo and video correspondents be let into the courtroom. Usually before these hearings there’s a photo spray before the press are let in.
Prison official has requested Navalny’s suspended sentence be converted to a prison sentence for parole violation. The state is officially seeking to imprison Navalny. The only off-ramp now would be the judge’s decision.
Prison officials are requesting to replace the probation with the full 3.5 years in prison. Not clear how much time Navalny would get off for what he’s already served.
Thank god they’ve turned on the microphones so I may actually hear the answer.
Navalny questioning prison official: “Dear captain, do you respect the Russian president Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.” He’s being cut off. “You said you don’t know where I’ve been since August. Putin said on TV that thanks to him I’d been sent to Germany for treatment.”
Navalny is saying he’d informed prison officials that he’d been evacuated to Germany for treatment and to recuperate. “What else could I have done to tell you where I am?” “I have a lawyer and my lawyer has a telephone... how could I have informed you better?”
Judge is speaking but not quite into the mic... so now is a good moment to follow colleagues in the courtroom @olliecarroll @Nat_Vasilyeva @antontroian @DiMagnaySky @BBCSteveR @HenryJFoy @mariageorgieva @Moskwitsch @EvaHartog @ikhurshudyan
Judge is continuing to read through the case documents, including prison official correspondence. Usually judges speed read this (if you’ve not seen it, watch the opening scene of Leviathan). But today she’s taking it slow.
Judge has just announced a two-hour (!) “technical break” from the court hearing for lunch.
We’ve hit peak Russian court cafeteria lunch
Back in the hearing, Navalny is giving a statement: “Namely Putin using the Federal Security Service tried to have me assassinated.”
Navalny: “The main thing in this case is not whether I go to jail. It’s to scare an enormous number of people. Imprison one person to scare 20 million.”
Key Navalny line: “Someone did not want me to take a single step on my country’s territory as a free man. And we know who and we know why - the hate and fear of one man, living in a bunker, whom I offended by surviving when he tried to have me killed.”
This speech doesn’t have much to do with arguing the case, it’s a political moment. Railing against Putin, corruption, demanding his freedom. Prosecutor breaking in to try to prevent him from picking up steam. Maybe Navalny’s last words but a political statement for the future.
Prosecutor says she wants to cross-examine Navalny, asking him whether he missed six parole check-ins before his poisoning in 2020. He says he went two times each month per the judge’s instructions.
The judge has left the courtroom to make her decision. Prosecutor says they are willing to count time previously spent under house arrest from the requested sentence of 3.5 years, would mean a max sentence of 2.5 years. Navalny has also been led out of the courtroom.
We're being told that the court is taking a break until 7:45 Moscow time, so it appears the decision is indeed scheduled for 8pm.
We’re being let back into the courtroom so the Navalny court decision is imminent. The judge either gives him 3 years and 6 months (minus 11 months) or leaves him out on parole.
TV cameras are being let in to film the court’s decision on Navalny.
Judge is a few minutes late, just tweaking the lede before she files
Navalny, now wearing a coat, has been led back into the courtroom and locked in the glass-enclosed holding cell (the aquarium). @RFERL have a livestream here h/t @kromark
With the decision moments away, he flashes a heart sign with his hands to his wife Yulia in the courtroom. We can’t hear what he says, the microphone in the aquarium is turned off.
Deleted this previous tweet for now since I haven’t vetted the url, will take a look later on
