a court in moscow has found russian
opposition leader alexei navalny guilty
of defamation
earlier today another court rejected
navalny's appeal against a jail sentence
in a separate case
but it did reduce his sentence slightly
taking into account time already served
under house arrest
navalny now must spend around two and a
half years behind bars for violating
parole
the kremlin critic was unable to meet
his parole officers because he was in a
german hospital receiving life-saving
treatment after being poisoned with a
military-grade
nerve agent
and dw correspondent emily sherwin has
followed the court cases and joins us
today from moscow emily
you watched proceedings what were the
highlights
well alexey navarni went in today into
today's double bill of court cases with
a good
dose of humor and cynicism i think he
was joking all day
he was smiling he even joked with the
journalists watching the case and
waiting for the verdict
that he had actually pickled
cucumbers in his prison cell in a
plastic
bag he also very much used
today's court cases where the verdicts
in some
senses in some sense were no real
surprise
as a platform to address his supporters
to address the public and to address
international viewers and and readers
as well he used his two closing
statements
to say that he didn't regret
coming back to russia he uh humorously
quoted uh both harry potter and the
bible
to say that he didn't feel alone and
that he urges
his supporters not to feel alone as well
and he also talked about his
vision for the future of russia a future
in which
as he said truth and justice matter and
russia can be free and emily what
reactions have there been to the
verdicts including perhaps in the
kremlin-aligned media
well i think the verdicts uh came as no
surprise and alexey navalny's
allies came out after that first verdict
the um
the rejected appeal saying that it's a
disgrace
and saying that it shows that there's no
rule of law in russia after all
the first case that he is now going to
be behind bars over
has been ruled by the european court of
human rights to be arbitrary and
unreasonable that's a ruling from 2017
and before this court hearing today the
european court of human rights also
called for his release
which the ministry of justice rejected
outright as an attempt by europe to
meddle in
russia's affairs and is it your feeling
that this will help
or hinder the russian opposition
uh well it's hard to know i think uh on
the one hand
uh the fact that alexey navani is behind
bars now
comes as no surprise to the opposition
here
it was pretty clear that he would be
arrested even before he returned
to russia what is interesting i think
about these two court cases and the last
few months with the protests
with his uh with alexey navalny's return
as well is they
really have meant that state media here
in the country can no longer
ignore alexey navalny as a figure
they've been presenting him including
with this trial
over the defamation of a veteran as
unpatriotic
as an agent of the west whereas before
they essentially
ignored him ignored opposition protests
as well and i think
now the opposition faces a really tough
task
there are duma elections in september
alexey navani's allies have been
advocating the strategy of smart voting
where they want people to vote for the
strongest candidate who's standing
against uh putin's united russia but
they've been facing
a huge crackdown not only with the
arrest of alexey navalny but with police
searches and
also at activists houses and so on
so we'll have to see how successful that
campaign ahead of those elections can be
for them
okay dw's emily sherwin in moscow thanks
for that