The Rennes Court of Appeal confirmed a dismissal order for the benefit of the Yves Rocher group challenged by the defense of Alexeï Navalny, who had filed a complaint against the cosmetics firm for “slanderous denunciation”, learned AFP Saturday with the lawyer of the Russian opponent. “This decision is totally incomprehensible, an appeal is seriously considered,” reacted to AFP Me William Bourdon. In 2019, Alexei Navalny and his brother Oleg filed a complaint in France for “slanderous denunciation” believing that Yves Rocher had unfairly accused them of fraud in Russia, where the cosmetics group has been established since 1991.
In 2012, the Russian justice had opened an investigation into alleged embezzlement which would have been committed by the company Glavpodpiska, owned by the Navalny brothers, to the detriment of the Russian subsidiary of the French group, Yves Rocher-Vostok. Thanks to these investigations, Yves Rocher said he had “discovered several consistent and important clues making it likely that there was a fraud. The firm based in Morbihan then filed a complaint against X to gain access to the file.
Sentenced to three and a half years in prison for embezzlement
The group later admitted to having suffered no harm, but that did not prevent Alexeï Navalny, sworn enemy of Vladimir Putin, from being sentenced in Russia in December 2014 to three and a half years in prison, suspended for embezzlement. detriment of the Russian subsidiary of Yves Rocher. His brother Oleg had been given the same condemnation, but firm.
Alexei Navalny’s reprieve was then revoked, the Russian authorities accusing him of having violated judicial control measures while he was recovering in Germany, after surviving an attempted poisoning. Alexei Navalny was arrested in January 2021 upon his return from Berlin. At the end of May 2022, Alexei Navalny was also sentenced in Russia to an additional nine years in prison for the alleged embezzlement of donations made to his anti-corruption organizations, charges which he denies and considers politically motivated.