'No legal grounds' to release Navalny, says Russia
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The court said Russia insisted in its argument to the court that Navalny was being held in an appropriately guarded facility and that his cell was under video surveillance
Russia on Wednesday rejected the call from the European Court of Human Rights and said there were no legal grounds to set Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny free.
Justice Minister Konstantin Chuychenko said the court's demand was "unreasonable and unlawful" and "there are no legal grounds for the release of this person from custody".
The court said Russia insisted in its argument to the court that Navalny was being held in an appropriately guarded facility and that his cell was under video surveillance.
But Navalny, who lodged a complaint on January 20, contended that "the arrangements listed by the government could not provide sufficient safeguards for his life and health," the court said.
Member states are obliged to enforce ECHR decisions, though in practice they may not be implemented.
European Court of Human Rights belongs to Council of Europe rights body, of which Russia is a member.
President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critic was jailed this month for almost three years for parole violations that he said were trumped up. The West has condemned the case and is discussing possible sanctions on Russia.
His arrest sparked two consecutive weekends of nationwide protests demanding his release, in some of the biggest anti-government demonstrations in years.
The 44-year-old anti-corruption activist is accused of defaming a veteran who took part in a promotional video backing constitutional reforms last year. The reform, approved in a referendum, will let Putin run for two more terms in the Kremlin after 2024 if he wants to.
A Moscow court earlier this month ruled to convert a three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence Navalny received on fraud charges in 2014 to jail time over alleged parole violations.
Navalny is now facing defamation charges for referring to a World War II veteran and others who appeared in a pro-Kremlin video as "traitors".
A Moscow district court on Tuesday heard the final arguments in the case, during which the prosecutor asked for a fine of 950,000 rubles ($13,000/10,600 euros).
As the alleged defamation occurred during the suspended sentence, the prosecutor also requested that it be converted to real jail time, despite the other court having already ruled to do so.