- A Russian court has sentenced Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny to another 19 years in prison.
- The trial for alleged extremism took place behind closed doors in a penal camp east of Moscow.
- Navalny has been in custody since 2021. It’s his fifth conviction.
In the run-up to the prosecution has demanded a 20-year prison sentence for alleged extremism. The conviction relates to the activities of Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation. Allies of his complain that all activities of the foundation have been criminalized since it was founded in 2011.
Before the trial, Navalny had his team informed that he was expecting a “huge prison sentence”. The new verdict against him serves to intimidate society, he 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.
Legend:
Alexei Navalny at a court hearing on August 27, 2018.
Archive/REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
Navalny is already serving a nine-year prison sentence for fraud and contempt of court. In addition, 2021 was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for violating probation conditions.
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.
trial in the penal camp
His supporters also criticize the fact that the new trial was not 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.
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.