BRUSSELS. Feb 3 (Interfax) - Austrian Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have condemned the Russian court ruling regarding opposition activist Alexei Navalny and have called for his release.
"The decision made in Moscow today in the case of Alexei Navalny is unacceptable. I demand his immediate release and the end of violence against peaceful protesters. The rule of law and freedom of speech must be ensured," Kurz said on Twitter.
The Canadian prime minister backed Kurz up and said that Ottawa "strongly condemned" the court ruling on Navalny.
"We call for his immediate release, as well as the release of the peaceful protesters and journalists who have been detained in recent weeks. The justice system must never be abused for political purposes," Trudeau said on Twitter.
Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau made a similar statement.
"Canada is appalled by the decision to imprison Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. We call on Russia to release those unjustly detained immediately, including peaceful protesters and journalists," Garneau said on Twitter.
The Simonovsky District Court upheld the motion of the Federal Penitentiary Service's Moscow branch at a visiting session held on the premises of the Moscow City Court on Tuesday, cancelled Navalny's suspended sentence, and replaced it with 3.5 years in a general penitentiary, consistent with the sentence pronounced earlier in the Yves Rocher case. Navalny and his brother Oleg were found guilty of embezzlement in December 2014.
The court credited the period spent by Navalny under house arrest during the period of investigation and trial in 2014 to the time he will spend in the penitentiary on a "day for day" basis. According to Navalny's lawyer, the opposition activist will actually spend about two years and eight months in a penitentiary. If the ruling regarding Navalny takes effect, he will be released from the penitentiary in October 2023.
Following the Simonovsky District Court session, the defense team said it would challenge the court ruling in the Moscow City Court and the cassation panel and would appeal to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in connection with the failure to comply with the European Court of Human Rights's judgment regarding Navalny in the Yves Rocher case.