Alexey Navalny filed a complaint with the ECHR

The complaint sent by Navalny to the European Court of Human Rights points to violations committed by Russian courts when deciding on claims brought against him by State Duma deputies from United Russia Sergei Neverov and Igor Rudensky. This is reported by Vedomosti with reference to the lawyer Damir Gainutdinov, who represents Navalny in the ECtHR.

The reason for lawsuits from the deputies was the results of an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Foundation published in November 2013 that Rudensky and Neverov had undeclared summer cottages in a prestigious area of ​​the Moscow region. In April 2014, the Lublin court satisfied Neverov's claim against Navalny for the protection of honor and dignity, obliging the oppositionist to refute the information he published. In June, the court made a similar decision on Rudensky's claim. These decisions were confirmed by the Moscow City Court. They noted that the parliamentary commission for monitoring the reliability of information about income did not find violations of the law in the actions of the deputies.

According to the oppositionist, the court decisions in this case were used to restrict freedom of speech, including the freedom to disseminate information and ideas without any interference from the public authorities. In fact, the courts refused to examine the evidence presented by Navalny (photos, extracts from the register, possible connections of the owners of the plots), the complaints say, and from the court decisions it follows that only the conclusion of the parliamentary commission could be recognized as sufficient evidence of the validity of the assumptions made by Navalny. The courts do not accept evidence provided by non-state bodies, lawyer Gainutdinov emphasizes, and this puts an end to any public investigation.