Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is seen on TV screens gesturing during a hearing on his charges for defamation in the Babuskinsky District Court in Moscow, Russia. © Babuskinsky District Court Press Service, AP
Looking gaunt and drained, jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny appeared in a Russian court via video link on Thursday as his team said he faced new criminal charges as well as the disbanding of his network of regional campaign offices.
In his first appearance since declaring an end to a three-week hunger strike last week, Navalny, his head shaven, remained defiant, though the blurry video link from jail showed he had lost weight.
The opposition leader rejected accusations he defamed a World War Two veteran, saying: "I demand that people who signed signatures [against Navalny], and the prosecutors be brought to criminal justice."
Navalny's court appearance came as his allies announced they were disbanding his network of campaign offices across Russia while a court considers whether to declare them "extremist".
If the network is declared extremist, authorities will gain the legal power to hand down jail terms to activists and freeze bank accounts. The court said on Thursday it would hold its next hearing in the case on May 17.
"Maintaining the work of Navalny's network of headquarters in its current form is impossible: it would immediately ... lead to criminal sentences for those who work in the headquarters, who collaborate with them and for those who help them," Leonid Volkov, one of Navalny's close allies, said in a YouTube video.
He said many of the offices would try to function as entirely independent regional structures led by their own leaders.
Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) has already been partially barred from accessing its bank accounts and from organising protests and publishing media articles.
Navalny's allies also said a new criminal case had been opened against him for allegedly setting up a non-profit organisation that infringed on the rights of citizens.
Nerve agent attack
The 44-year-old Kremlin critic is serving a 2-1/2 year jail sentence for parole violations on an earlier conviction that he says was politically motivated.
He declared his hunger strike in prison on March 31 to demand proper medical care for leg and back pain, but said on April 23 that he would start gradually ending it after getting medical care.
Pressure has been mounting on him and his campaigning against political and business corruption for months. Last year, Navalny accused President Vladimir Putin of being behind an attack on him with a nerve agent that he survived.
Russian authorities denied any involvement and questioned whether he was even poisoned but Western countries have imposed sanctions on Moscow over its treatment of Navalny.
Navalny recovered in Germany from the nerve agent attack, but was arrested on his return to Russia in January and sentenced the following month. He has also been convicted of defamation in a separate case against him, which he denies.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)