Alexei Navalny has been found guilty of embezzlement, Russian media report.
A judge was still reading the verdict in the city of Kirov, but news agencies said it was clear in his remarks that the Russian leading opposition leader had been convicted.
Even a suspended sentence would bar the outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin from running for president in 2018.
Alexei Navalny, 40, has denied the accusations, saying the case is politically motivated.
A sentence in the retrial may take hours to be read out. Prosecutors had asked the judge to hand Alexei Navalny a five year suspended sentence.
The European Court of Human Rights ordered a retrial after it said he was not given a fair hearing in the first trial, in 2013.
Alexei Navalny is known for his anti-corruption campaign, which targeted senior officials close to the Kremlin. He says the case is an effort to keep him out of politics.
He has recently stepped up his political activity after announcing plans last year to run for the presidency in 2018. President Putin is allowed by the constitution to run for a second consecutive six-year term, but he has not said yet if he plans to run.
Alexei Navalny’s rise as a force in Russian politics began in 2008 when he started blogging about alleged malpractice and corruption at some of Russia’s big state-controlled corporations.
He described Vladimir Putin’s United Russia as “the party of crooks and thieves”, a phrase that stuck among many in Russia.
Alexei Navalny stood for Moscow mayor in 2013 and got more than a quarter of the vote, a surprise for many.
In the first trial, in 2013, Alexei Navalny was found guilty of heading a group that embezzled timber worth 16 million roubles ($500,000) from the Kirovles state timber company while working as an adviser to Kirov’s governor, Nikita Belykh.
Alexei Navalny had described the rerun of the trial as an “exact copy” of the original proceedings, and said he was sure he would be found guilty once again.
Hosni Mubarak has been sentenced to 3 years in prison on corruption charges after a retrial in Egypt’s capital, Cairo.
The former Egyptian president’s sons, Alaa and Gamal, were given 4 years each in the same case which centers on the embezzlement of $14 million earmarked for renovation of presidential palaces.
The original conviction was overturned on January 13 over legal procedures.
This was the last court case hanging over Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled in the 2011 uprising.
Hosni Mubarak and his sons were also fined for the amount embezzled and used to renovate their private residences in Cairo and on the Red Sea coast, as well as a family farm.
The 87-year-old former leader and his sons were present in the courtroom at a police academy on the outskirts of Cairo.
Some of his supporters wore T-shirts with Hosni Mubarak’s face and waved and blew kisses as he entered, the Associated Press news agency says.
They shouted in anger as the judge issued the ruling – which can be appealed against.
It is not clear whether the time Hosni Mubarak has already served will count – or whether he will be sent to jail again.
Egypt’s highest court is also due to decide on June 4 whether to allow an appeal against a lower court’s ruling that dropped murder charges against Hosni Mubarak.
Hosni Mubarak remains at Maadi Military Hospital in Cairo.
Egypt’s Court of Cassation has overturned the convictions for embezzlement of former President Hosni Mubarak and his two sons and ordered a retrial.
Hosni Mubarak, now 86, was jailed for three years in May after being found guilty of fraudulently billing the government for $14 million of personal expenses.
However, the Court of Cassation found legal procedures were not followed properly.
Hosni Mubarak’s lawyer says the former president would soon be released from detention at a Cairo military hospital.
It was the last remaining case keeping Hosni Mubarak behind bars.
Charges of conspiring in the killing of hundreds of protesters during the uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak’s rule in 2011 were dropped in November.
The former president and his sons – Alaa, 53, and Gamal, 51 – were also cleared of two separate corruption charges.
The Court of Cassation, Egypt’s top appeals court, announced that it had overturned the three men’s convictions for embezzlement and ordered a retrial at a brief session on January 13.
At the original trial, prosecutors alleged that Hosni Mubarak and his sons had billed the government for more than 100,000 Egyptian pounds of personal expenses – including utility bills, interior design, landscaping, furniture and appliances – for several private homes and a public palace that was fraudulently transferred to their ownership.
Other expenses included renovating a villa, and building a new palace wing to accommodate one of Hosni Mubarak’s granddaughters and a mausoleum for a grandson who died, they said.
Evidence submitted by the prosecutors included more than a thousand original and forged receipts.
When a new court is assigned for the retrial, the judges could order Hosni Mubarak to be freed because no convictions against him remain.
Egyptian media report that Hosni Mubarak had been expected to be released from the military hospital at Maadi on January 17 even if the embezzlement conviction was upheld because he has been in custody since April 2011.
Chinese politician Bo Xilai has been found guilty of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power and sentenced to life imprisonment having the right to appeal.
Bo Xilai had denied all the charges against him in a fiery defense at his trial.
The former party chief of Chongqing was removed from office last year amid a scandal which saw his wife Gu Kailai convicted for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.
The verdict was handed down by the Intermediate People’s Court in Jinan, Shandong province.
Passing sentence the judge told Bo Xilai that he had damaged China’s national interests and the interests of its people, wrongfully using his position in power to receive bribes totalling 20 million Chinese Yuan ($3.2 million).
The judge rejected Bo Xilai’s claims that his confession to the crimes was acquired through illegal means such as torture and interrogation, and said it therefore stood.
During Bo Xilai’s trial last month the court took the unprecedented step of releasing details about proceedings on its Weibo microblog.
Bo Xilai was sentenced to life in prison on the bribery charges, 15 years for embezzlement and seven years for abuse of power. In addition all his personal wealth has been confiscated.
He has 10 days to appeal against his sentence and conviction, but correspondents say that any such move is highly unlikely to be successful.
Bo Xilai has been found guilty of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power and sentenced to life imprisonment
Although his trial was conducted under an unprecedented degree of openness for China, many analysts say that the guilty verdict was always a foregone conclusion – and many see the process against him as having a very strong political dimension.
Prosecutors had said that Bo Xilai accepted the bribes and embezzled public funds from Dalian, where he used to be mayor.
Bo Xilai was also accused of abusing his office by using his position to cover up for his wife Gu Kailai, convicted last year of murdering Neil Heywood in 2011.
In lengthy comments in court, he said he did not illegally obtain millions of dollars or cover up Neil Heywood’s killing.
He also dismissed the testimony of two key witnesses, describing his wife’s statement as “ridiculous” and his former police chief Wang Lijun’s testimony as “full of lies and fraud”.
Bo Xilai’s fall from power was triggered when Wang sought refuge in the US consulate in Chengdu in February 2012.
The incident prompted an investigation into the death of Neil Heywood. Wang Lijun has since been jailed for 15 years for helping Gu Kailai cover up the murder.
The Bo Xilai scandal triggered a crisis in the Communist Party, which was about to hold its once-in-a-decade leadership handover, and revealed divisions at the top of the party over how Bo should be handled.
Two years ago Bo Xilai was seen as a candidate for promotion to the Politburo Standing Committee, China’s top decision-making body.
His downfall was seen as the biggest political shake-up to hit China’s ruling elite in decades.
Bo Xilai’s trial also offered the public a rare glimpse into the life of China’s rich and powerful, with lurid details emerging of lavish vacations and luxury villas.
Earlier this week, an overseas-based dissident Chinese news website published a letter allegedly written by Bo Xilai in prison on September 12.
Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post said that unidentified insiders with close ties to Bo Xilai had confirmed that the letter, addressed to Bo’s family, was genuine.
“I am an innocent victim and I feel wronged,” the letter read.
“But I believe one day truth will prevail…I will wait quietly in jail for that day to come.”
Russian activist Alexei Navalny has told supporters he will fight and win the Moscow mayoral vote, after he was freed from jail pending an appeal against a five-year jail term.
Alexei Navalny has returned to Moscow from Kirov, where a judge convicted him of embezzlement, in a case widely condemned as political.
The court ruled on Friday he could go back to Moscow until the appeal.
The jail term has been criticized by the US, EU and human rights groups.
Alexei Navalny has told supporters he will fight and win the Moscow mayoral vote, after he was freed from jail pending an appeal against a five-year jail term
Alexei Navalny told a crowd of supporters at Yaroslavsky station on Saturday that “we are going to stand in the elections and we will win”.
He was accepted as a candidate in the September 8 mayoral poll shortly before he was found guilty of embezzlement and there had been some doubt over whether he would run.
The anti-corruption activist said he would take part in campaigning for the election as long as it was possible.
A number of riot police were at the station and security forces were deployed in the surrounding area, Interfax news agency reports.
Hours after his conviction was announced in Kirov on Thursday, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Moscow in an unsanctioned demonstration.
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov has since warned activists not to hold any more protests without official approval.
Asked late on Friday whether there was any chance of Alexei Navalny being pardoned, Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “A convict first has to admit his guilt.”
Russian anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny has been charged with embezzlement in a case he describes as “strange and absurd”.
Federal investigators in Moscow brought charges over a timber deal in the Kirov region in which he was involved as an unofficial adviser three years ago.
The case was previously investigated and dropped by regional prosecutors.
Alexei Navalny, who was also ordered not to leave the country, suggested the new charges were aimed at discrediting him.
Supporters of the anti-corruption lawyer, who led mass protests in Moscow against Russian leader Vladimir Putin this winter, demonstrated outside the offices of the Investigative Committee (SK) in Moscow, where he was charged on Tuesday.
Under Article 160 of the Russian criminal code on “misappropriation or embezzlement”, Alexei Navalny faces between five and 10 years in prison if convicted.
Russian anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny has been charged with embezzlement in a case he describes as "strange and absurd"
Reacting to news of the case, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said on Twitter: “We should be concerned with attempts in Russia to silence fierce opposition activist Alexei @navalny.”
The case relates to a loss-making contract concluded by a state-owned timber company in Kirov, a region just west of the Ural Mountains, with another company.
The Kirov regional budget for 2009-10 suffered a loss of 1.3 million roubles ($40,000) and Alexei Navalny was investigated as he was acting at the time as an adviser to Kirov’s governor, Nikita Belykh.
The charges were announced on Tuesday by Vladimir Markin, official spokesman for the SK, a federal body set up to act as the equivalent of the FBI in Russia.
Alexei Navalny was charged under articles 160 and 33 (acting as an accomplice to a crime), Vladimir Markin told Russian news agencies.
Investigators, Vladimir Markin said, had originally sought to charge Alexei Navalny with causing “damage to property by means of deceit or abuse of trust” but they proceeded to more serious charges after reviewing the evidence.
Alexei Navalny pointed out that he had gone to the SK expecting to be charged with the lesser offence, only to find the case had been altered against him into something much more serious.
“This charge is strange and absurd,” he said after emerging from the building.
“They have completely changed the essence of the charge.”
This winter saw the biggest anti-government demonstrations in Moscow since the fall of the USSR. Protesters rallied around Alexei Navalny, who accused Vladimir Putin’s allies of rigging elections.
Since Vladimir Putin was re-elected president in March, legal action against opposition figures has increased markedly. A tough new law was passed on public order offences and tight curbs were placed on non-governmental organizations.
In recent weeks, Alexei Navalny, a lawyer by training, turned his fire on the SK’s chief, Alexander Bastrykin.
Alexander Bastrykin denied Alexei Navalny’s allegations that he had undeclared business interests in the Czech Republic.
He admitted once owning a flat there but said he had given it to his first wife. As for commercial activity, he said: “I was never in business. Business in the sense of aiming to make a profit. If they can find a single euro in profit, I’ll resign.”
Alexei Navalny vowed on Tuesday to continue his political activities despite the case against him.
“I will continue doing what I did before – nothing has changed for me,” he was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
This is what Elder Efrem said to the monks who met him to take his blessing according to agioritikovima.gr.
‘I am a monk and I have handed over my life to the hands of the Most Holy Lady from the beginning of my life’.
‘Most of the faithful perceive you as a confessor you is led into prison without any justification’ said the monks to him.
He replied: ‘From a young age I have given myself over to the Most Holy Lady. Where I am going now, I am also doing the same. Therefore, do not be scared. I have never pursued glory and neither have I done any heroic acts. Had I wished for these, I wouldn’t become a monk in the Holy Mountain. I have defended and will continue to defend the Holy Mountain and the property of our monastery which our forefathers have created’.
‘I am taken into custody without any justification’, he added.
A few minutes ago, the members of the Holy Community of the Holy Mountain expressed their overwhelming support for Abbot Efraim of the Holy Monastery of Vatopaidi.
According to information, today, Monday 26 December, 2011, a delegation from the Holy Community of the Holy Mountain visited Abbot Efraim in his cell in the monastery.
The members handed over a letter of support to the Abbot, stressing that the entire Community expressed its unstinting confidence in and respect for his person.
In their letter, the Representatives of the Holy Monasteries of the Holy Mountain emphasized that the decision to place Abbot Efraim in preventative detention was an affront to the religious sensibilities of the people, the most holy Church and Athonite monasticism.
The letter reads as follows:
SEAL OF THE HOLY COMMUNITY
Ref. No. Φ. 4/5/3069
The Very Reverend
Holy Abbot
of the H. M. of Vatopaidi
Archim. Efraim
and the honourable brotherhood with him
therein
We embrace Your Reverence in brotherhood in the Lord.
It is with profound sorrow and great astonishment that we have been informed of the issue of an arrest warrant for the immediate preventative detention of Your Reverence.
It causes us and the whole Athonite world deep pain that this hasty issue and dispatch of the above arrest warrant should have occurred on the days leading up to the glorious feast of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, as do the inexplicable haste and immediate mobilization of a powerful force of police and the urgent delegation of a prosecutor, in disregard of Athonite procedures, for Your arrest, as if it were the case of an extremely dangerous malefactor. These actions are an affront to the religious sensibilities of the faithful, of our most holy Church and of Athonite monasticism.
Holy fathers and brethren, we share your profound pain at this unprecedented tribulation and the cross you are bearing during these holy days, when your Spiritual Father, known from his youth for his love of the Church and monasticism, as well as his contribution over many years to Your Holy Monastery and the Holy Mountain in general, has been dragged away and taken into detention. His treatment has been an offence against the whole Athonite fraternity.
In sharing the pain of Your trial, we express through this present letter, sealed with Our stamp, the unanimous support of Our Holy Community, encompassing the holy Abbot with Our undivided respect, trust and genuine love in Christ.
We pray from the depths of our hearts that Our Lord, Who became incarnate for Our salvation, through the intercessions of Our Lady the Mother of God, the guardian of this Holy Place, will strengthen all of You, will bring this trial to a satisfactory conclusion and will disperse the shafts of the enemy and of those who are against the Church.
With much love in the Lord and with brotherly affection, we remain
All the Representatives and Stewards
of the twenty Holy Monasteries of the Holy Mountain of Athos.
The abbot of the prestigious Vatopedi monastery in Mount Athos, Greece has been imprisoned pending trial for alleged fraud and embezzlement.
Archimandrite Ephraim, 56, is accused of arranging land swaps between Vatopedi and the state which are thought to have cost the government millions of euros.
The abbot, now being held in Korydallos prison in Athens, denies wrongdoing. His arrest has triggered protests in Greece, Cyprus, Russia and other christian orthodox countries.
What is Archimandrite Ephraim accused of?
Mount Athos monks rallied for Abbot Ephraim
Vatopedi is part of the ancient Mount Athos monastic community that has been visited by Britain’s Prince Charles and Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The controversial deal saw valuable state land traded for less valuable land held by Vatopedi. It is said to have cost the state some EURO 100 million ($129.42m). None of the involved state officials have been accused, prosecuted or detained, some have even been promoted.
“They rushed Efraim to jail … while others who have embezzled Greek people’s money remain at large,” said George Karatzaferis, leader of the far-right LAOS party which is part of Greece’s coalition government.
Despite parliamentary investigations into several public officials, no senior politician has so far been charged.
“Undoubtedly the pre-trial jailing could create the impression, in one part of Greek society, that finally someone is paying for a such a big scandal,” said Costas Panagopoulos, head of ALCO pollsters.
“But it also reminds everyone that all politicians involved in this case are left unpunished,” he said.
The government’s anti-corruption crackdown hit another snag on Wednesday when two newly-appointed special prosecutors targeting economic crime resigned, complaining of political meddling. They did not give details.
Justice Minister Miltiadis Papaioannou replied accusing the critics of “interfering in the work of the justice system”.
Cyprus protesters for freeing Archimandrite Ephraim
Speaking to Skai TV, Bishop Anthimos of Thessaloniki wondered why Ephraim was the only person among the 32 involved in the Vatopedi land swap to be remanded in custody.
“People are wondering whether Ephraim is being made a scapegoat,” said the bishop, who insisted that the Church of Greece’s Holy Synod would not take a position on the matter.
“There is the problem of meddling in judicial matters,” he said. “The church is totally separate from the state.”
“The detention of Mr. Ephraim is another impropriety of Greek justice. It violates the fundamental principle of rule of law dictates that no one is deprived of liberty only after a decision legally consisting court. Temporary custody is a derogation from this principle because it is ordered without a court has ruled on the guilt of a person and therefore justified only in extreme cases when the accused is suspected of absconding or is likely to commit new offenses.
The law governing the detention (Article 282 CCP) is detailed and fully consistent with the exceptional nature of the measure. It requires not only the accused is suspected escape, but have gone in flight preparations. Not only is likely to commit new offenses, but very likely that they will commit. […] With these data, the pre-trial detention is completely arbitrary and has no basis in law.”
Prof. Tsakyrakis added:
It is Mr. Ephraim the only victim of judicial arbitrariness that sends people to prison without a court to rule on guilt, only because the investigating judge and the prosecutor consider them guilty. Two of them, for Mr. A. Sotiropoulou and daughter accused of scandal Zimens I publicly complained in the past. Our judges, however, do not seem to pay attention. They still consider custody as a means of power that allows them to imprison someone accused by themselves and not according to the law. The anxiety of most defendants in Greece is not the trial (which nobody knows when it will take place) but to avoid detention. […]
Russia supports the release of Archimandrite Ephraim
The Russian Orthodox Church’s head of foreign relations, Metropolitan Ilarion, called the abbot’s detention “an extraordinary event, arousing profound bewilderment”
“We are deeply concerned by the ruling of the Greek judiciary to put him under pre-trial detention, despite the recommendations of the European Court of Human Rights” the Russian foreign ministry said.
Patriarch Kirill asks Greek president to release Abbot Ephraim
Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill
Archimandrite Ephraim, Abbot of Vatopedi Monastery
Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill has sent a message to Greek President Karolos Papoulias to express his concern regarding the custody of Archimandrite Ephraim, Abbot of the Mount Athos Vatopedi Monastery.
“It is my duty to convey our common concern to the chief of the Greek state and to request the release from custody of Archimandrite Ephraim, superior of the Mount Athos Vatopedi Monastery,” says the message posted on the Russian Orthodox Church website.
“I do not question the powers of the Greek law enforcement officials and express hope for a fair and impartial decision regarding the property of the Vatopedi Monastery. However, I am perplexed by the custody of the monk, who is not a danger to society and has repeatedly expressed readiness to cooperate with detectives, prior to the court hearing of the case merits,” he said.
Patriarch Kirill said he was particularly concerned about Archimandrite Ephraim’s ill health, which was ignored in taking him into custody.
“In Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and other countries, whose peoples are the traditional flock of the Russian Orthodox Church, millions of believers are alarmed by the police measures taken as regards the hegemon of the famous Athos monastery well-known to the entire Orthodox world on the days Orthodox Greece celebrates Christmas,” he said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed concern about the custody of Archimandrite Ephraim on Wednesday.
There was no intention to flee the country to escape a trial, Abbot Ephraim was in Russia accompanying the Belt of the Most Holy Mother of God for more than one month in fall. Approximately three million believers worshiped the holy object from Athos in that period.
Protests in Russia for freeing Archimandrite Ephraim
Support Crowd in Moscow
Russia’s Orthodox St.Andrew Foundation has held a protest campaign in the vicinity of EU Moscow office to support Archimandrite Ephraim, superior of the Vatopedi Monastery in Athos who had been arrested earlier. The Fund arranged the delivery of the Most Holy Mother of God Belt from Athos earlier this autumn.
The protesters believe it is cruel and inhumane to keep Father Ephraim under arrest given the state of his health and age. A similar rally was organized near the Greek Embassy in Moscow.
To: The President of the Hellenic Republic, The Prime Minister, The Attorney General
24 December 2011
Your Excellencies,
We hereby condemn with abhorrence the judicial ‘’crime’ committed in Athens on the 23rd December 2011, against the Church in the face of Elder Efrem, Abbot of the Great, Holy Monastery of Vatopaidi in the Holy Mountain.
The decision to take Elder Efrem into custody was based on hatred and prejudice. This is manifested in the following:
The timing of the decision: Christmas Eve
The surrounding of the Holy Mountain by armed police forces despite the declaration by the attorney representing the Elder that the latter intended to present himself to the police willingly.
The sentence passed is normally given to people who have the intention to repeat the offences accused of.
During the preliminary hearing the reason given for the sentence was the Elder’s recent trip to Russia, when he accompanied the Holy Belt of the Most Holy Mother of God. During this visit millions of people, including the President, the Prime Minister and the Attorney General of the Russian Republic came out to greet them.
The investigation lasted more than three years and no incriminating evidence has been found.
The offense which the Elder is accused of is ‘instigation’ even though the suspects of this offence have been acquitted.
During the last three years of the investigation, the Elder has taken numerous trips abroad and if he had intended to leave the country he had plenty of opportunity to do so.
The Elder, as a spiritual figure, is honored and praised worldwide and constitutes an excellent envoy for Greece.
The people who have been revealed as the masterminds of the conspiracy against him have been honored with ministerial posts and are attempting to cover up their deception at all costs.
In Greece, enormous scandals have been uncovered and established while those responsible are not only walking free but are also given political posts.
We are convinced that the decision is a deliberate political act intending to defame the Holy Mountain and the Church.
Cutremuraţi şi rămaşi fără grai, noi, ortodocşii de pretutindeni, greci sau nu, am aflat de hotărârea cu totul neîntemeiată a Curţii de Apel din Atena, privind arestul preventiv al Părintelui Stareţ Efrem.
Această evoluţie neaşteptată a evenimentelor ne îndeamnă să semnăm, în semn de dezaprobare a acestei hotărâri şi de susţinere a Părintelui Stareţ Efrem, scrisoarea ataşată şi să facem demersuri pentru semnarea ei de toţi cei care sunt de acord cu conţinutul ei.
Vă dorim un Crăciun fericit!
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