MOSCOW: A Russian court in the northern city of Kirov on Wednesday reopened the trial of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is accused of embezzlement and may face up to a decade in jail if convicted.
The prosecution accuses the 36-year-old protest leader of causing a loss of $500,000 (385,000 euros) to the regional government while acting as an advisor in a timber deal, charges Navalny claims have been ordered by President Vladimir Putin.
The trial, held about 900 kilometres (560 miles) away from Moscow, opened last week but was quickly adjourned after Navalny’s defence said they needed more time to study the case, which has been criticised by the opposition and some political heavyweights including former finance minister Alexei Kudrin.
Dressed in jeans and a shirt with rolled-up sleeves, Navalny, himself a lawyer, made no comment to the media when he entered the courtroom and appeared to be following the proceedings closely. Around a hundred journalists and fellow opposition activists were also present to watch the trial.
As Wednesday’s hearing got under way, Navalny’s defence immediately called for the case to be sent back to the prosecution, citing a litany of violations committed by the investigators, and arguing that the final indictment contains conflicting information.
A total of five probes are now aimed at the charismatic opposition leader, who if he is even given a suspended sentence will be banned from ever standing for office.
“I will grin and bear it. One day we will get even for all of them at once,” he wrote on his popular blog last week.
Navalny’s lawyers had filed a separate complaint over lack of time to read the materials to Kirov regional court, which it rejected Tuesday.
Navalny’s team has posted the entire charges on a website, and insists that they were fabricated on Putin’s orders.
But media loyal to the Kremlin has gone on an offensive against Navalny, with polls suggesting that his public support is now falling.
“The money stolen by Navalny was enough to build 30 hockey pitches or to repair five kilometres (three miles) of highway,” Rossiya 24 state television claimed on the first day of the trial.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov meanwhile lamented to state television on Monday that “we have no (opposition) leaders who are ready to take responsibility”.
State pollsters VTsIOM found in a survey published Tuesday that 51 percent of Russians had “negative” feelings about Navalny, 20 percent more than the same time last year.
Nevertheless, the poll demonstrated growing awareness of Navalny due to his high-profile trial. Fifty-three percent said they knew who Navalny was — compared with 37 percent in a different survey last month.
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