*WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th February, 2021) The US State Department on Thursday renewed its call for Russia to free opposition figure Alexey Navalny, who was earlier transported from a preliminary detention facility in Moscow.
Navalny's lawyer, Vadim Kobzev, told Sputnik that, although he was not informed as to where his client was being sent, he expected it to be a prison.
"We renew our calls for Russia to release those detained for exercising nothing more than human rights. In many cases nothing more than what they are guaranteed under Russia's own constitution, and that includes Mr. Navalny" State Department spokesman Ned price told reporters.
On February 2, a court in Moscow ruled to replace Navalny's suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher fraud case with three and a half years in prison. This was done upon the request from the penitentiary facility, which argued that Navalny had repeatedly broken the rules of the suspended sentences and a search warrant had to be issued shortly before his detention.
The Yves Rocher case was launched upon the request of the French company's then-representative in Russia. The court determined that Alexey Navalny and his brother Oleg used false information to convince the cosmetics company to sign a deal for transportation of mail with their company. The services were overpriced and eventually provided by another transport company. The damage was estimated at 30 million rubles ($405,300).
