IBAHRI is highly concerned about the arrest warrant for Yulia Navalnaya
Tuesday 16 July 2024
The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) is highly concerned that a court in Moscow, Russia has issued an arrest warrant, in absentia, for Yulia Navalnaya on charges of extremism. The widow of Alexei Navalny, the prominent anti-corruption activist and outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin and the Russian regime, is living in exile knowing that she will be detained if she returns to Russia.
Since the death of her husband, Ms Navalnaya has denounced President Putin and his regime, stating that her husband had been ‘tortured, starved, cut off and killed’ by the President and that ‘Vladamir Putin is a murderer and a war criminal’. She was unable to attend her husband’s funeral in March 2024 due to fear of arrest.
IBAHRI Co-Chair and the Immediate Past Secretary General of the Swedish Bar Association, Anne Ramberg Dr Jur hc, commented: ‘Yulia Navalnaya has been courageously outspoken blaming Mr Putin for her husband’s death and for the persecution of him over the years prior to his demise. The arrest warrant against her is another example of attempts by the Russian authorities to destroy any opposition or criticism of them and to send a clear message that the status quo will not change.’
Since 2011 – when Mr Navalny was arrested for participating in a protest against the Russian legislative election – reports detail how the opposition leader was repeatedly harassed and detained by the Russian Federation authorities. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the arrests and detention of Mr Navalny from 2012 to 2014 violated his human rights and appeared to be part of a broader effort ‘to bring the opposition under control’.
IBAHRI Director, Lady Helena Kennedy of the Shaws LT KC, stated: ‘Opposition voices are vital to any open thriving democracy. Putin is an autocrat; he pursues revenge against any dissident. He does not confine his tyranny, the murders and punishments carried out, to Russia but pursues those he sees as enemies across the globe. The danger he poses to the free world is real and the rule of law is completely undermined. The legal system has been wholly corrupted, and the judiciary captured by the will of the Kremlin.’
IBAHRI Co-Chair and former President of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, Mark Stephens CBE stated: 'The abuse of the issuance of arrest warrants is an increasingly common abuse perpetrated by autocratic states which have scant regard for the Rule of Law. We must be continuously vigilant against such abuses as in this case.'
He added: ‘It is outrageous that Yulia Navalnaya has been targeted this way. Her husband has died and, at a time, where she is entitled to grieve, Vladimir Putin has put a target on her back. This transnational oppression cannot be allowed to continue. United Nations State parties must speak now and protect others like Yulia Navalnaya from the long arm of the Russian state.’
In 2020, Mr Navalny was hospitalised after being poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) ran tests on Mr Navalny at the request of the Federal Republic of Germany, where he had been transferred after falling ill on a domestic flight in Russia and spending time in Omsk Hospital in Siberia. The OPCW said that a cholinesterase inhibitor from the Novichok group was found in his blood, urine, skin samples and water bottle, and that ‘[t]his cholinesterase inhibitor is not listed in the Annex on Chemicals to the [Chemical Weapons] Convention.’ It was a new type of Novichok.
The IBAHRI raised concerns about the poisoning of Mr Navalny in 2020 and condemned the arrest of his lawyers in October 2023. Earlier this year, in February 2024, IBAHRI joined the global condemnation of Russia after Mr Navalny died unexpectedly in prison while serving a 30-year sentence.
Previous opposition leaders and/or dissidents who have been jailed or murdered include:
- Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky, an exiled Russian businessman and opposition activist was arrested in 2003 by Russian authorities and charged with fraud. Mr Khodorkovsky spent ten years in jail and immediately left Russia upon release.
- Paul Klebnikov, an American journalist was murdered in Moscow in 2004.
- Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian investigative journalist was murdered in an elevator. Ms Politkovskaya refused to give up reporting despite numerous acts of intimidation and violence including arrest and poisoning.
- Boris Nemtsov, a Russian physicist, liberal politician and outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin was assassinated in 2015, while organising a rally against Russian military intervention in Ukraine.
- Sergei Skripal, a former double British-Russian agent, and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in Salisbury, United Kingdom. They were poisoned with the Novichok agent.
- Vladimir Kara-Murza, a British-Russian political activist was poisoned in both 2015 and 2017. In April 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mr Kara-Murza was arrested on charges of disobeying police orders and received a prison sentence of 25 years. In January 2024, it was reported that he had disappeared, reappearing at a harsher facility where he remains to this day.
- Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist whose reporting covered Russia was detained by Russia’s Federal Security Service on charges of espionage in March 2023.
- Rimur Kuashev, a Russian journalist and human rights activist, Ruslan Magomedragimov, a Russian activist, and Nikita Olegovich Isaev, a Russian politician, journalist and anti-corruption activist have all been found dead in Russia under suspicious circumstances in 2014, 2015 and 2019 respectively.
This transnational repression from Russia is a phenomenon displayed frequently over the past few decades.
ENDS
Contact: IBAHRI@int-bar.org
Notes to the Editor
-
Arrests and sentencing:
In early 2021, after his flight from Germany was diverted from Vnukovo Airport to Sheremetyevo Airport Alexei Navalny was arrested. In 2022, he was charged with extremism and terrorism with further charges added for fraud and contempt of court. The charges were widely described as arbitrary and politically motivated. On 4 August 2023, Mr Navalny was sentenced to an additional 19 years in a ‘special regime’ colony on charges including publicly inciting extremist activity, financing extremist activity and ‘rehabilitating Nazi ideology’. The Moscow City Court found him guilty on all charges in a closed-doors trial.
Related material:
The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), established in 1995 under Founding Honorary President Nelson Mandela, is an autonomous entity working to promote, protect and enforce human rights under a just rule of law, and to preserve the independence of the judiciary and the legal profession worldwide.
Find the IBAHRI on social media here:
The International Bar Association (IBA), the global voice of the legal profession, is the foremost organisation for international legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies. Established in 1947, shortly after the creation of the United Nations, with the aim of protecting and promoting the rule of law globally, the IBA was born out of the conviction that an organisation made up of the world's bar associations could contribute to global stability and peace through the administration of justice.
Find the IBA on social media here:
Website page link for this news release:
Short link: https://tinyurl.com/mwzzw3cd
Full link: http://www.ibanet.org/IBAHRI-is-highly-concerned-about-the-arrest-warrant-for-Yulia-Navalnaya