The Navalny case: Council of Europe, “arbitrary ruling. Meeting the obligations undertaken by Russia as a member state”. Arrests go on

Today, the top executives of the Council of Europe issued a joint statement in which they stated that “they deeply deplore” the sentence inflicted on Alexei Navalny, as it refers to a “previous criminal sentence that the European Court of Human Rights”, in the Navalny versus Russia ruling of 17th October 2017, “had defined as arbitrary and openly unreasonable” and conflicting with the European Convention on Human Rights “that Russia is part of”. Therefore, they call Russia to “meet the international obligations undertaken under the Convention”. In the statement, they also mention with “concern” the arrests of protesters and journalists that are taking place across the Federation, which the social media are speaking of. There is a case that is attracting most of the attention and protests: that of Sergei Smirnov, editor-in-chief of the independent platform Mediazone, arrested on January 30th and then freed, but sentenced yesterday to 25 days in prison on charge of “repeated breaches of the rules on rallies”. The images that are coming from the detention centres (in the photo) show the inhuman conditions in which people are held. That’s why today the Council of Europe called Russia to “strictly adhere to” the fundamental rights and asked the Russian authorities to “fully investigate all the cases of abuse reportedly committed against peaceful protesters and journalists and to prosecute the offenders”, according to the “obligations and commitments undertaken by Russia as a member state of the Council of Europe”.
Valentina Bombelli