Navalny Aleksey Anatolievich

Navalny Aleksei Anatolievich, born 4 June 1976, Moscow resident, lawyer, one of the leaders of the Russian opposition. Died in a penal colony on 16 February 2024.

On 30 December 2014, under parts 2 and 3 of article 159.4 (‘Fraud in the sphere of entrepreneurial activity on a large and especially large scale’) and paragraph ‘a’ of part 2 of article 174.1 (‘Legalisation of money acquired by a person as a result of committing a crime, on a large scale’) of the Russian Criminal Code as part of the ‘Mail case’, sentenced to 3 years 6 months‘ suspended imprisonment with 5 years’ probation and a fine of 500 000 roubles (~€4700).

On 17 January 2021, Navalny returned to Russia from Germany, where he was treated after being poisoned, and was immediately detained. On 2 February 2021, the court replaced his suspended sentence with a real one: taking into account the time spent under house arrest, the politician was sentenced to 2 years and 8 months in a general regime penal colony.

On 20 February 2021 he was sentenced under part 2 of article 128.1 of the Russian Criminal Code (‘Slander contained in a public speech, publicly displayed work, mass media or committed publicly using the Internet’) to a fine of 850 000 rubles (~€8000).

On 22 March 2022, following a trial held without any legal grounds in a penal colony, he was sentenced to 9 years in a strict regime penal colony and fined 1.2 million roubles (~€11250) under part 4 of article 159.4 (‘Fraud on a particularly large scale’) and parts 1 and 4 of article 297 of the Criminal Code (‘Insulting participants in a court session and the judge’).

On 4 August 2023, he was sentenced to 19 years‘ imprisonment on charges of committing offences under article 239, part 2 (‘Establishment of a non-profit organisation whose activities involve inducing citizens to refuse to fulfil civil obligations or to commit other unlawful acts’), part 3 of article 282.1 (‘Organisation of an extremist community abusing official position’), article 280 (‘Public calls for extremist activities’), article 282.3 (‘Financing extremist activities’) and article 354.1 (‘Rehabilitation of Nazism’), under article 151.2, paragraphs 2 (a) to (c), of the Criminal Code (’Involving two or more minors in the commission of acts endangering their lives on the Internet’).

In April 2023, charges under Article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code (‘Public calls for terrorist activity, public justification of terrorism or propaganda of terrorism’) were singled out for separate proceedings; Navalny was to be tried by a military court in this case.

On 1 December 2023, it became known that a new criminal case was opened against Navalny under two episodes of part 2 of article 214 of the Russian Criminal Code (‘Vandalism committed by a group of persons or on the grounds of hatred and enmity’, with a maximum of 3 years' imprisonment).

On 16 February 2024, the Federal Penitentiary Service reported the death of Alexei Navalny in penal colony IK-3 of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District.