Moscow – the Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who was detained on Sunday immediately after his return to Moscow after recovery from nerve poisoning, was brought before a judge at a police station instead of a regular courtroom Monday morning for a hearing that his lawyers did not have time to prepare. The judge accepted a request from the Russian police to detain Navalny for 30 days.
Navalny condemned the proceedings as a mockery of justice, criticized President Vladimir Putin’s 20-year rule and called on his supporters in Russia to take to the streets in protest.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said in a video posted to one of his official YouTube channels. Don’t shut up. Resist. Take to the street. No one but ourselves will protect us, and there are so many that we will achieve if we want to achieve anything.
The video message was recorded in the same room of a police station on the outskirts of Moscow, where the impromptu hearing previously took place. Navalny’s lawyers were not allowed to see the politician prior to the hearing, and they heard it was about to happen a few minutes before it began.
The judge gave the Navalny defense team 30 minutes to familiarize themselves with the material of the case and another 20 minutes to communicate with their client.
“I’ve seen a lot of mockery at justice … But this is impossible what is happening now,” Navalny said in a separate cell phone video posted on Twitter by his press secretary ahead of the surprise hearing. “It’s the highest degree of lawlessness.”
When the hearing resumed, Russian police asked the court to formally arrest Navalny for 30 days, and the judge granted the request. Navalny’s legal team confirmed that a hearing was scheduled for Feb. 2 for Navalny to face the charges on which he had been officially held – for violating the terms of a previous suspended sentence.
International outrage
Navalny’s detention came immediately condemnation of European and US officials and the United Nations.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of the Russian dissident, in a statement Sunday, calling his detention “the latest in a series of attempts to silence Navalny and other opposition members. “.
US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan also called for Navalny’s immediate release.
“The perpetrators of the outrageous assault on his life should be held accountable,” Sullivan said. “The Kremlin’s attacks on Mr. Navalny are not only a violation of human rights, but also an insult to the Russian people who want their voices to be heard.”
In London, Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said Russia should explain how Navalny was attacked during a flight within Russia with a chemical weapon.
“It is appalling that Alexei Navalny, the victim of a despicable crime, has been detained by the Russian authorities. He must be released immediately,” Raab said. “Instead of prosecuting Mr. Navalny, Russia should explain how a chemical weapon was used on Russian soil.”
Russian authorities have defended his arrest, and on Monday, Secretary of State Sergei Lavrov took a thinly disguised thrust at Washington for criticizing his country’s handling of justice issues amid a “crisis” in Western democracy.
“This may allow Western politicians to think that by doing this they can divert attention from the deepest crisis in which the liberal development model finds itself,” Lavrov told reporters in response to criticism from Washington and Europe.
Navalny announced his plan to return home from Berlin last week, despite a new criminal case recently being opened against him on allegations of fraud. Days earlier, the Russian Prison Authority also petitioned a court to replace Navalny’s three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence with a new prison sentence.
He would have known the risks, but on the plane he said it was his “best day in five months” as he was going home.
Navalny’s supporters in the Russian opposition dismiss all legal threats against him as artificial political persecution.
The Kremlin’s fiercest critic fell ill during a domestic flight five months ago. After several days of treatment in Siberia, he was finally flown in a coma to Berlin, where toxicology reports confirmed that he had been poisoned with the same kind of Novichok nerve agent used in a 2018 attack on a former Russian double agent in England.
In a interview with “60 minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl, Navalny blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin himself for his poisoning.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I’m sure he’s responsible.”
The Kremlin has denied any involvement.
Navanly traveled with his wife and a team of allies on Sunday when he returned to Moscow. The others were allowed to pass freely through border control, where Navalny was taken into custody after giving his wife a goodbye kiss.
Charlie D’Agata and Tucker Reals of CBS News contributed to this report.