Interfax: Navalny says appellate court will not acquit him of Kirovles embezzlement charges

(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 15, 2013) Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny has said he does not expect the Kirov Regional Court to acquit him as it hears an appeal contesting Navalny’s embezzlement conviction on October 16.

“I will be given a real or a suspended prison sentence, but I will not be acquitted,” he told the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.

However, the court hearing is unlikely to finish on the same day, he said.

“I doubt that the appellate proceedings will take just one day. We have submitted a pile of petitions. The appellate court may decide to summon witnesses or order some examinations. Anyone who says that I will be handcuffed there and then has a very poor knowledge of the nuances of such proceedings. This option cannot be ruled out completely, but it is unlikely,” the opposition activist said.

Navalny said he was going to Kirov fully prepared to be taken into custody.

“I will bring my personal belongings because I would not want to find myself in jail without food and clothes if everything is completed on the same day,” he said.

When speaking about his recent election campaign, Navalny said that he was happy with his performance at the September mayoral elections in Moscow.

As far as next year’s elections to the Moscow City Legislature as concerned, Navalny said his main goal would be to make the United Russia Party lose its majority in the Russian capital’s parliament.

“Our task is to strip United Russia of its majority in the Moscow City Duma,” Navalny said.

“Regardless of whether I go to prison or not, I will do my best at these elections to make them lose this majority. I will either run myself or will support other candidates,” he said.

On July 18, a Kirov court sentenced Navalny to five years in prison for embezzlement at the Kirovles timber enterprise. The other suspect in the case, Pyotr Ofitserov, was sentenced to four years. The two were taken into custody in the courtroom, but were released the next day with travel restrictions until the verdict came into effect.

Navalny finished second in Moscow’s mayoral race on September 8.

[featured image is file photo]