Sentence to Alexei Navalny

On April 22, the magistrate of precinct number 332 of the Babushkinsky district of Moscow will announce the verdict in the criminal case against Alexei Navalny, who is accused of slandering United Russia member Alexei Lisovenko, the head of the Babushkinsky municipal district.

The case was opened under Article 128.1 of the Criminal Code (slander), which does not provide for imprisonment. Navalny faces a fine of 500 thousand to 5 million rubles or compulsory work for a period of 160 to 480 hours.

During the prosecutor’s inspection of the conditions of Navalny’s detention under house arrest at the request of Lisovenko, the latter, according to him, “received a number of threats and insults from the blogger’s supporters, while Navalny himself on his Twitter allowed himself statements of a deliberately false nature, in which he groundlessly accuses Alexey Lisovenko of the disease drug addiction."

In early March , Lisovenko filed complaints against Navalny to the Prosecutor General's Office and Roskomnadzor. According to United Russia, the fact that entries continue to appear in the accounts of the leader of the Progress Party,who was placed under house arrest , indicates that the politician himself writes on the social network. Lisovenko called for considering the possibility of changing the preventive measure for Navalny and blocking accounts on social networks.

On March 5, Lenta.Rureported about Lisovenko’s complaints. A link to this publication appeared on Navalny’s Twitter with the comment: “The drug addict deputy from United Russia believes that only one person can use access to LiveJournal and Twitter.”

It was for this tweet that Lisovenko decided to involve Navalny. On Thursday, United Russia published a medical certificate on its blog confirming that “no signs of drug addiction have been identified at this time.” This certificate, the deputy noted, “the certificate is the basis for our speedy meeting” in court.