Russia violated Navalny's rights in house arrest
Russia violated the human rights of anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, a leading opponent of President Vladimir Putin, by holding him under house arrest for a lengthy spell in 2014, Europe's top rights court said Tuesday.
It is the second time the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has condemned Russia over Navalny, and comes as questions grow over whether Moscow will remain a member of the Council of Europe (CoE), to which the court belongs.
"The restrictions on him, including tight limits on his communicating, had been out of proportion to the criminal charges he had faced," the ECHR said, ruling that Russia had violated the European Convention on Human Rights.
"It was also apparent that he had been treated in that way in order to curtail his public activities," it added.
Navalny hailed the decision as a "victory" in a message on his Instagram account.
"I am sure that the decision will have important consequences for those in Russia who are subject to such lawlessness all the time," Navalny wrote.
Russia was ordered to pay Navalny 20,000 euros ($22,550) in damages and 2,665 euros ($3,000) in costs and expenses
The latest ruling relates to almost a year that Navalny spent under house arrest starting in February 2014 after he was charged with fraud and money laundering along with his brother Oleg.
The pair was convicted in December 2014, with Alexei Navalny given a suspended sentence and his brother sent to prison. Both have denounced the charges as politically motivated.
The ECHR had already condemned Russia in November over a series of arrests of Navalny, saying seven arrests between 2012 and 2014 had violated his rights to security, a fair trial and the freedom of assembly.
The court said the restrictions on Navalny pursued the "same aim of the suppression of political pluralism" in Russia.
The rulings come as questions grow over whether Russia will remain a member of the Council of Europe, the pan-European rights body of which the ECHR is a part.
After Moscow's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, the council's Parliamentary Assembly deprived the Russian delegation of voting and other rights.
In retaliation, Russia has suspended its annual 33 million euro ($37 million) payment to the Strasbourg-based council -- about seven percent of its budget -- and has not participated in PACE sessions.
After two years of non-payment of contributions -- which would be in June this year -- Russia could be suspended from the council in what some have dubbed a potential "Ruxit".
Navalny has over the last decade emerged as one of the key opponents of Putin, with his exposes of high-level corruption touching a nerve with many Russians especially in Moscow.
But his legal troubles have prevented him from taking on Putin at the ballot box, in what supporters argue is a brazen attempt by the Kremlin to keep a dangerous opponent from the stage.
