NEWS AND MORE's video: Navalny smiles talks to lawyers in court ahead of jail term hearing

Navalny smiles, talks to lawyers in court ahead of jail term hearing Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny appeared in court on Tuesday (February 2) ahead of a hearing which may jail him for up to three and a half years. The case against Navalny has sparked nationwide protests and talk of new Western sanctions. Navalny who was brought to Moscow City Court in handcuffs, smiled as he talked to his legal team. He was heard asking if his wife, Yulia Navalnaya will attend the hearing. Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critics, was arrested at the Russian border on January 17 after returning from Germany where he had been recovering from a nerve agent poisoning in Russia. Navalny accuses Putin of ordering his murder, something the Kremlin denies. It in turn has suggested that Navalny is an asset of America's Central Intelligence Agency, a charge he rejects. Moscow's state prison authority accuses Navalny of parole violations and wants the court to convert a suspended sentence he had been serving in an embezzlement case he calls trumped up into a real jail term of up to three and a half years. Navalny says he was unable to report into the prison service at the end of last year because he was recovering in Germany from being poisoned. State prosecutors said on Monday (February 1) that they would ask the court to grant the prison authority's request. Navalny's political allies have appealed to his supporters to gather outside the court to support him. Russian police detained over 100 people near the court, the OVD-Info protest monitoring group said. (Production: Maria Vasilyeva, Yury Bakhnov)