Judgment on 20 years in a prison camp
Navalny faces a “huge prison sentence” like in Stalin’s time
8/4/2023 8:37 am
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been in prison in Russia for three years and has been sentenced to nine years. In a new process, up to eleven years could now be added. According to Navalny, the unusually harsh punishment has a very specific purpose.
In the much-criticized new trial against the already imprisoned Kremlin opponent Alexej Navalny, the verdict is expected on Friday. The 47-year-old, who is internationally regarded as a political prisoner, faces a total of up to 20 years in a prison camp for alleged extremism in a Russian court. “It will be a huge prison sentence. What is known as a ‘Stalinist prison sentence’,” Navalny said on Thursday through his team on social networks.
Under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin (1879-1953), very long and harsh sentences were common in communist times. He expects that the court will ultimately set its verdict at around 18 years, wrote Navalny. When asked by the German Press Agency, his spokeswoman Kira Jarmysch explained that this meant the total length of detention; So the nine years of prison camps to which Navalny was sentenced in 2020 are included.
Human rights activists repeatedly point out Navalny’s ailing health, who barely survived a nerve agent attack in the summer of 2020. Navalny accuses the Russian domestic secret service FSB and President Vladimir Putin of being behind the assassination three years ago. The Kremlin denies that. After treatment in Germany, Navalny returned to his homeland. He was arrested at the airport.
Judgment serves to intimidate society
His supporters also criticize the fact that the new trial will not be held in court, but directly in Navalny’s penal colony in Melekhovo, 260 kilometers from Moscow. According to their reports, he is tortured there by inhuman prison conditions and permanent isolation.
The new verdict against him serves to intimidate society, Navalny wrote. It should prevent critical parts of the Russian population from publicly opposing Putin and Russia’s war in Ukraine. He also asked for solidarity with political prisoners. In his closing remarks two weeks ago, the opposition politician called for a fight against “the unscrupulous evil that calls itself the ‘state power of the Russian Federation'”.
Russia has been waging a war of aggression against neighboring Ukraine for more than 17 months now. During this period, the Russian leadership also massively increased repression against critics at home. In addition to Navalny, numerous other members of the opposition who are internationally classified as political prisoners are imprisoned in Russian prison camps. Just a few days ago, Vladimir Kara-Mursa was sentenced to 25 years in a prison camp. It is the longest jail sentence ever imposed on a government critic in Russia.