European rights court calls on Russia to free Navalny immediately

According to ALJAZEERA, The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Wednesday that Russia must release Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny from jail, citing risks to his life.

The court, based in Strasbourg, France, said in a statement that its order applied with “immediate effect”, warning that a failure to follow its ruling would mark a breach of the European human rights convention.

He was jailed on February 2 for almost three years over alleged parole violations of a suspended sentence linked to a 2014 embezzlement case. Navalny insists the case brought forward against him was politically motivated.

The Russian Justice Ministry said it would not comply with any call from the ECHR to release Navalny, saying such a move could not be “executed from the standpoint of international law”, the TASS news agency reported.

“Adopting a decision based on Rule 39 of European Court of Human Rights’ Rules of Court in this case will be an ungrounded and flagrant intervention in the operation of a judicial system of a sovereign state, a certain crossing of a red line,” the ministry said before the ruling.

Russia is a member of the Council of Europe rights body, to which the ECHR belongs.

Member states are obliged to enforce ECHR decisions, although in practice they may not be implemented.