Russia imprisons dozens for participating in honoring Navalny

Russian courts have sentenced dozens of individuals who were arrested while participating in commemorating the late opposition figure Alexei Navalny, with 154 people convicted in Saint Petersburg alone.

The judgments, published by the city's judiciary over the weekend, showed that 154 people were sentenced to up to 14 days in prison for violating Russia's strict laws prohibiting protests.

Rights groups and independent media reported similar sentences for individuals in other cities.

Navalny, 47, died Friday in a prison in the Arctic region where he was serving a 19-year sentence, sparking anger and condemnation from Western leaders.

Russian police arrested hundreds of people over the weekend who visited makeshift memorials erected for Navalny to lay flowers and light candles in his honor.

Protests against the Kremlin or public displays of opposition to the regime are illegal in Russia under strict military surveillance laws and laws against unauthorized marches.

Police and plainclothes officers patrolled dozens of Russian cities where people gathered to honor Navalny over the weekend.

There were reports of them removing makeshift memorials erected overnight, and video footage showed masked men collecting bouquets in garbage bags on a bridge near the Kremlin, where Boris Nemtsov, another prominent Putin critic, was killed in 2015.

AFP