Alexei Navalny has appeared in Russian court for the first time since lifting the hunger strike: “I am a horrible skeleton”

Jailed Kremlin adversary, Alexei Navalny, pike emaciated Yes Out of print in his first appearance since declaring the end of the hunger strike, during which denounced the Russian justice in the middle of the dissolution of the network of regional offices of its foundation.

Navalny, shaved head, remained provocative, although his virtual appearance showed that he had lost weight.

Navalny appeared in court to appeal a conviction for defamation of a veteran of the Second World War, a separate case that landed him in jail.

In dismissing the allegations, Navalny said: “I demand that the people who collected signatures (against him) and the prosecutors to be brought to justice.”

Navalny also spoke with his wife, Yulia Navalnya, who was physically present in court and gave him details of his weight and what he last ate.

They said they took him to a public bath so he could looks “decent” to your audience.

I looked at myself. I am a horrible skeleton. The last time I weighed 72 kg, I was probably in seventh ”, He said.

He added that he ate “Four tablespoons of oatmeal a day, today five, tomorrow I’ll eat six.”

Navalny, 44, serves a prison sentence of two and a half years for violation of liberty conditional in an earlier belief which he said was politically motivated.

He declared his hunger strike in prison on March 31 require appropriate medical attention for leg and back pain, but on April 23 he said he would start to finish it gradually after receiving medical attention.

Pressure has been mounting on him and his campaign against political and commercial corruption for months.

Office closures due to repression

After weeks of increasing pressure, his allies announced on Thursday that they would dissolve their network of campaign offices in Russia while a court examines the advisability of declaring them and their Anticorruption Foundation (FBK) “Extremists”.

If the network is declared an extremist, the authorities will gain the legal power to impose prison sentences on activists and freeze bank accounts. The court said on Thursday it would hold its next hearing in the case on May 17.

“It is impossible to keep the work of the Navalny headquarters network in its current form: this would immediately result in criminal convictions for those who work at headquarters, those who collaborate with them and those who help them, ”he said. Leonid Volkov, one of Navalny’s close allies, in a YouTube video.

He said that many offices would attempt to function as fully independent regional structures led by their own leaders.

Access to your bank accounts has already been partially prohibited at FBK, organize demonstrations and publish articles in the media.

Navalny’s allies also said that new criminal proceedings were brought against him for allegedly creating a non-profit organization that violated citizens’ rights.

Novichok attack

Last year, Navalny accused President Vladimir Putin of being behind an attack on him with a nerve agent from which he survived.

Russian authorities have denied any involvement and questioned whether he had even been poisoned.But Western countries have imposed sanctions on Moscow for his treatment of Navalny.

Navalny was arrested in January on his return from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from the poisoning.

His arrest led to protests across the country which have been the biggest dissent against the Kremlin in years.

(With information from Reuters and AP)

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