Navalny Refuses to Obey House Arrest, Removes Electronic Tag

Russian opposition blogger Navalny refuses to comply with the requirements of his house arrest. The opposition blogger, who included a photograph of his broken electronic tag, said that he had no intention of leaving his house.

MOSCOW, January 5 (Sputnik) — Opposition blogger Alexei Navalny, who was handed down a 3.5-year suspended sentence over alleged embezzlement from a cosmetics company, removed his electronic tag in violation of the terms of his house arrest on Monday.

"I refuse to comply with the requirements of my illegal house arrest," a message on Navalny's blog read.

The opposition blogger, who included a photograph of his broken electronic tag, added that he had no intention of leaving his house.

Meanwhile, law enforcement sources told RIA Novosti that the Federal Penitentiary Service would notify the Moscow court if Navalny violated the terms of his house arrest.

"The Penitentiary Service is verifying information on whether Navalny has removed the electronic bracelet," the unnamed source said later on Monday.

On December 30, the anti-Kremlin blogger was given a suspended sentence of 3.5 years for allegedly embezzling 26 million rubles ($270,000) from the Yves Rocher cosmetics company, as well as $74,000 from the Multifunctional Processing Company (MPC). His brother Oleg was sentenced to a real prison term of the same length.

Both verdicts were substantially lower than the prosecution's request of 10 years for Alexei and eight for Oleg.

Later that evening, following sentencing, Alexei Navalny was detained for breaking his house arrest as he attempted to join a protest rally in downtown Moscow.