A judge ordered opposition leader Alexei Navalny jailed for 30 days after the leading Kremlin critic returned to Russia from Germany where he was treated for nerve agent poisoning.
His arrest had already prompted a wave of criticism from U.S. and European officials, adding to existing tensions between Russia and the West.
Crowds of supporters gathered around the police stations where a makeshift court was set up and as the judge announced the ruling, Navalny’s allies immediately called for protests.
His top strategist, Leonid Volkov, announced preparations for “large rallies” on Saturday “all across the country.”
“Don’t be afraid, take to the streets,” Navalny said in a video statement released after the ruling was announced. “Don’t come out for me, come out for yourselves and your future.”
At least 13 protesters were detained Monday outside the police precinct where the court hearing was held, and at least 55 demonstrators were rounded up by police in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, according to activists.
Russia’s prison service said at the hearing that Navalny had violated probation terms from a suspended sentence on a 2014 money-laundering conviction, which he says is contrived and politically motivated. The service said it would seek to have Navalny serve his 3½-year sentence behind bars.
Navalny described the move as an attempt by the Kremlin to deter him from coming back to Russia to continue his political activities.
A court hearing on the prison service’s motion to have Navalny serve his suspended sentence in prison is scheduled for Feb. 2, according to his lawyers.
“It is impossible, what is happening over here,” Navalny said in a video from the improvised courtroom that was posted on his page in the messaging app Telegram. “It is lawlessness of the highest degree.”
The judge ordered that Navalny be remanded in custody until Feb. 15. Navalny’s lawyers said they would appeal the ruling.
Amnesty International, which called Navalny a prisoner of conscience, denounced Monday’s court hearing as a “mockery of justice.”
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, joined world leaders in calling on Russian authorities to free Navalny, and the outgoing U.S. secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said the U.S. “strongly condemns” the decision to arrest the opposition leader.
