ST. PETERSBURG, December 18. The Constitutional Court (CC) of Russia did not accept for consideration Alexei Navalny’s complaint against the norms of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) of the Russian Federation on the rights of the accused and the defendant, it follows from the court materials.
According to the refusal ruling published on the website of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, Navalny doubted the constitutionality of paragraph 8 of part four of Article 47, as well as Article 267 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. The eighth paragraph gives the accused the right to have the assistance of a defense lawyer, including free of charge, and Article 267 establishes that the presiding officer explains to the defendant his rights at the court hearing.
The reason for the appeal to the Constitutional Court was the court decisions denying Navalny an administrative claim against the colony, which did not allow his defenders to bring in technical means of communication and audio recordings, the Constitutional Court’s ruling notes. At the same time, the general jurisdiction court of cassation noted that the arguments of the complaint about the violation of Navalny’s right to defense in a criminal case are not subject to assessment within the framework of an administrative case and can be presented by him in criminal proceedings.
Position of the Constitutional Court
As the Constitutional Court indicated, the right to appeal to the Constitutional Court with a complaint belongs, in particular, to citizens whose rights and freedoms, in their opinion, are violated by the normative acts applied in a particular case. In this case, the complaint may be considered admissible if there are signs of a violation of the applicant’s rights as a result of the application of the contested normative act in a case with his participation. Court decisions that confirm the application by the courts of the contested act are attached to the complaint.
According to the definition of the Constitutional Court of Russia, “the presented court decisions do not confirm the fact of application of the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation challenged by the applicant.”
“The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation determined … to refuse to accept for consideration the complaint of citizen Alexey Anatolyevich Navalny, since it does not meet the requirements of the federal constitutional law “On the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation,” according to which the complaint to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation is recognized as admissible,” concludes in the definition of the Constitutional Court of Russia.
History of verdicts
Navalny ended up in prison after his suspended sentence in the case of embezzlement from Yves Rocher was replaced in February 2021 with real imprisonment due to violations of the suspended sentence regime. In March last year, the Lefortovo Court of Moscow sentenced Navalny, together with the previous case, to nine years in a maximum security colony for fraud and contempt of court. The second episode of the case concerned the insult of judge Vera Akimova, who passed a sentence for slandering the Great Patriotic War veteran Ignat Artemenko — as a result of the trial, Navalny received a fine of 850 thousand rubles.
In May 2022, the Moscow City Court recognized the district court’s decision as legal, and in June Navalny was transferred from Correctional Colony No. 2 to maximum security penal colony No. 6 , also located in the Vladimir region.
In August of this year, the Moscow City Court, at an off-site hearing in colony No. 6 in the Vladimir region, found Navalny guilty of creating an extremist community, financing extremist activities and a number of other crimes, appointing him to a special regime colony for 19 years. In September, the First Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction declared the sentence legal.