MOSCOW. Feb 4 (Interfax) - High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and European Commission Vice President Josep Borrell could meet with Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny only if a court permits such a meeting, Moscow City Court press secretary Ulyana Solopova said.
"Considering that the court judgment of February 2 has not yet taken legal effect, the convict Navalny remains within the jurisdiction of Moscow's Simonovsky District Court, and therefore, this court is supposed to decide on a visit to the convict according to a standard procedure stipulated by Russian law," Solopova told Interfax.
The European External Action Service had said earlier that Borrell wished to meet Navalny while visiting Russia.
"What is noteworthy in this context is a keen interest in the judicial proceedings in relation to a Russian citizen on the part of representatives of foreign states, which we noticed on the day of the hearing at the Moscow City Court. The Timiryazevsky Court today heard a case of another person with dual citizenship (Russian and French), but no representatives of the French embassy were present at this hearing and hadn't asked the court to be admitted as spectators," Solopova said.
Moscow's Timiryazevsky District Court ruled earlier on Wednesday to give seven days of administrative arrest to French citizen Cyril Danielou for joining an unpermitted rally in support of Navalny on February 2.
Moscow's Simonovsky District Court ruled on February 2 to grant a motion by the Moscow branch of the Federal Penitentiary Service on replacing a suspended sentence earlier given to Navalny in the Yves Rocher case with real imprisonment of three years and six months. In December 2014, Alexei Navalny and his brother, Oleg Navalny, were convicted of embezzlement.
The Simonovsky Court counted the number of days Navalny spent under house arrest during the investigation and trial in 2014 toward the period of imprisonment he has yet to serve. Navalny's lawyer said that, if the sentence takes legal effect, he will actually have to serve about two years and eight months and will be freed in October 2023.