Russian court gives Navalny’s brother one year suspended sentence

A Russian court gave Oleg Navalny, the brother of Kremlin critic, Alexei Navalny a one-year suspended sentence on Friday for inciting people to break Coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions, his lawyer Nikos Paraskevov said on Twitter.

Oleg Navalny was detained in January as part of a broad crackdown on his brother’s allies.

He was initially put under house arrest for flouting COVID-19 restrictions before the terms of his detention were eased.

Several allies of Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critic in Russia, have faced similar charges.

Navalny ally Lyubov Sobol was sentenced this week to 1-1/2 years of parole-like restrictions after a court found her guilty of the same offense. Sobol, a close ally of Navalny, says the accusation against her is politically motivated nonsense. She was charged after an unsanctioned street protest in support of Navalny earlier this year.

She was ordered to remain at home between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. for 18 months and banned from attending mass events. She was told she must check in with the police three times a month, her lawyer Vladimir Voronin wrote on Twitter.

Sobol had initially been placed under house arrest.

Several close Navalny allies, including his brother, are being tried for the same offense. Navalny himself is serving 2-1/2 years in jail for parole violations in an embezzlement case he says was trumped up. Navalny’s allies accuse the authorities of using the law to crush dissenting voices ahead of September parliamentary elections.