STRASBOURG: Europe’s top rights court condemned Russia on Thursday over a series of arrests of the outspoken Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, calling them “politically motivated” attempts to curtail opposition to President Vladimir Putin’s government.
Judges at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg said seven arrests between 2012 and 2014 had violated Navalny’s rights to security, a fair trial and the freedom of assembly.
Each time the anti-corruption campaigner was detained and later convicted of either breaching procedures for holding public demonstrations or disobeying a police order.
In two of the arrests, the court ruled that “they had actually aimed at suppressing political pluralism.”
“It is a very clear judgment,” Navalny said after the ruling in Strasbourg, where he managed to arrive Wednesday after Russian border guards prevented him from flying out of Moscow the day before.
The agents said he could not leave until he paid a fine of 2.1 million rubles (28,000 euros, $31,600) connected to a 2013 conviction.
“The European court recognizes that it was a politically motivated arrest and persecution,” Navalny said.
“It was very important not just for me but for many people all over Russia who are arrested every day.”
The court ordered Russia to pay Navalny 50,000 euros ($56,000) in damages, as well as 1,025 euros in financial compensation and 12,653 euros for costs and expenses.
But Navalny said he did not expect the Russian government to hand over the money.
“It is going to ignore the ruling and say the European justice system is politically motivated... That is the Russian government’s standard response,” he said.
The court had already condemned Russia last year over the arrests, but rejected Navalny’s claim they were politically motivated.
That prompted a rare appeal by both Navalny and the Russian authorities.
In its ruling Thursday, the court called on Russia “to provide a legal mechanism for the authorities to take due regard of the fundamental importance of the right to peaceful assembly and show the necessary tolerance for unauthorized, peaceful gatherings.”
Navalny, a 42-year-old Yale-educated lawyer, has for years investigated suspected corruption by top officials, at times making allegations which have drawn thousands of people into the streets.
He came to prominence as an organizer of huge anti-Putin rallies that shook Russia in 2011 and 2012 following accusations of vote-rigging in parliamentary polls that restored Putin to the presidency.
His anti-corruption rhetoric is especially popular with younger people who follow his online channels and blogs.
But Putin has shown no appetite for opposition, and Navalny has repeatedly been arrested — last month he was released from back-to-back sentences for organizing demonstrations.
From 2013 to 2017 he was prohibited from leaving Russia, as authorities refused to issue him a passport because of the legal cases.
He was eventually allowed to leave the country in May last year to seek treatment in Spain for damage to his eye after an unknown assailant threw green dye in his face in Moscow.
But he was barred from running against Putin in presidential elections last March, prompting him to call for a boycott of a vote which returned the Russian leader to power with 76 percent of the vote.
Since then his 17-year-old daughter, Daria, has launched her own YouTube show called “Voice of My Generation.”
Vladimir Putin critic claims victory after rights court condemns arrests
Vladimir Putin critic claims victory after rights court condemns arrests
- Judges at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg said seven arrests between 2012 and 2014 had violated Navalny’s rights
- The court had already condemned Russia last year over the arrests, but rejected Navalny’s claim they were politically motivated
US says Mexican cartel drones breached Texas airspace
- Drone breach comes some five months into a US military campaign targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats
- US media also reported that the El Paso airspace closure may have been caused by the US military
HOUSTON: The Trump administration said Wednesday that Mexican cartel drones caused the temporary closure of a Texas airport, but some Democratic lawmakers pushed back, suggesting US military activity was responsible for the disruptive shutdown.
The report of the drone breach comes some five months into a US military campaign targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats, and could provide a pretext for President Donald Trump to follow through on his threats to expand the strikes to land.
Trump has specifically threatened to attack cartels inside Mexico, which said it had “no information” on drones at the border.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said late Tuesday the airspace over the Texas border city of El Paso would be shut to all aircraft for 10 days, citing unspecified national “security reasons,” only to lift the closure after less than 24 hours.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post on X that the FAA and the Defense Department “acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion,” adding: “The threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region.”
A US administration official meanwhile said the breach was by “Mexican cartel drones,” and that US forces “took action to disable the drones,” without providing specifics.
But Democratic Representative Veronica Escobar, whose district includes El Paso, questioned the Trump administration’s explanation, saying it was “not what we in Congress have been told.”
“The information coming from the administration does not add up and it’s not the information that I was able to gather overnight and this morning,” Escobar told journalists.
And top Democratic lawmakers from the House Committee on Transportation suggested the Pentagon may have been responsible for the situation, saying defense policy legislation allows the US military to “act recklessly in the public airspace.”
The lawmakers called for a solution that ensures “the Department of Defense will not jeopardize safety and disrupt the freedom to travel.”
- War against ‘narco-terrorists’ -
US media also reported that the El Paso airspace closure may have been caused by the US military, with CNN saying the shutdown was the result of Pentagon plans to use a counter-drone laser without coordinating with the FAA.
The Pentagon referred questions on the closure to the FAA, which said when it announced the move that “no pilots may operate an aircraft in the areas” covered by the restrictions and warned of potentially “deadly force” if aircraft were deemed a threat.
It updated its guidance Wednesday morning, saying on X that the closure was lifted.
Trump’s administration insists it is effectively at war with “narco-terrorists,” carrying out strikes on alleged traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, while the US president has repeatedly said he plans to expand the strikes to land.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum opposes US military intervention in her country but has so far managed to negotiate a fine diplomatic line with Trump.
She has stepped up extradition of cartel leaders to the United States and reinforced border cooperation amid tariff threats from Trump, for whom curbing illegal migration from Mexico was a key election promise.
Sheinbaum told a news conference Wednesday that she had “no information on the use of drones at the border,” but that her government was investigating.
The United States began carrying out strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in September, a campaign that has killed at least 130 people and destroyed dozens of vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
US officials have not provided definitive evidence that the vessels are involved in drug trafficking, prompting heated debate about the legality of the operations, which experts say amount to extrajudicial killings.
Trump also ordered a shocking special forces raid in Caracas at the beginning of January to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, whom Washington accused of leading a drug cartel.
