MOSCOW. Feb 12 (Interfax) - Diplomats from two Baltic republics have arrived at Moscow's Babushkinsky District Court, which is continuing to hear the criminal case of opposition activist Alexei Navalny on counts of slandering a WWII veteran on Friday.
"Representatives of Latvia and Estonia have made an appearance in court," the court press service told Interfax.
The state prosecutor began presenting evidence at the previous court session as part of this case on February 5. WWII veteran Ignat Artyomenko, the aggrieved party, addressed the court, speaking via video link from home. Artyomenko said that he is awaiting a public apology from Navalny.
The prosecutors say that on June 2, 2020, Navalny published a post on Twitter and Telegram about a video aired on the RT television channel, which was filmed in support of Russia's constitutional amendments and featured war veteran Artyomenko. Navalny posted a comment that contained knowingly false information denigrating Artyomenko's honor and dignity, according to the prosecution.
Subsequently, Navalny was charged with slander.
The opposition activist has pleaded not guilty and describes the case as politically motivated.
Navalny returned to Russia on January 17 and was detained at the airport upon arrival, as he was wanted by the Federal Penitentiary Service.
The Simonovsky District Court on February 2 upheld a motion of the Federal Penitentiary Service's Moscow branch at a visiting session held on the premises of the Moscow City Court to cancel Navalny's suspended sentence and replace 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.