The Russian Ministry of Justice asked the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to reconsider the decision, which requires the immediate release of Alexei Navalny. This was reported by RIA Novosti with reference to a source in the ministry.

The Ministry of Justice also asked to declare inadmissible the complaint of Navalny’s lawyers, due to which the court made its decision.

The ECHR demanded the release of Navalny as an emergency interim measure before considering the complaint, since it concluded that Navalny’s life was in danger.

According  to RIA Novosti, the Ministry of Justice indicated in its statement that such a conclusion was made without sufficient evidence and without evidence of violation of Navalny’s rights in the pre-trial detention center. The ministry claims that it provided the court with information on the conditions of Navalny’s detention in a timely manner, but this information was not taken into account.

The Justice Ministry also said that Navalny himself did not complain about the conditions in the pre-trial detention center. “The ECHR has not received this kind of document that could become the basis for a decision,” RIA Novosti said in a statement.

The ECHR demanded that Russia release Alexei Navalny on February 17. The Ministry of Justice immediately replied that such a requirement was “deliberately impracticable.”

Navalny is in jail because of a court decision, which replaced his suspended sentence with a real one in the Yves Rocher case . On February 20, the Moscow City Court rejected an appeal against this decision. In the near future, Navalny will be sent to a colony.

(C)MEDUZA 2021