(Reuters) – Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny expects to hear a verdict on Tuesday in Russia’s newest felony case towards him, in which prosecutors search to have him despatched to a maximum-security penal colony for 13 years on prices of fraud and contempt of court docket.
Navalny is already serving a two-and-a-half 12 months sentence at a jail camp east of Moscow for parole violations associated to prices that he says have been trumped up to gag him as a political opponent of President Vladimir Putin.
His nationwide opposition motion has been labelled “extremist” and shut down, however he has continued to difficulty messages on social media from jail by way of his authorized crew and aides, just lately urging Russians to oppose the struggle in Ukraine.
Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, mentioned final week that prosecutors had requested a switch to a maximum-security jail as a result of they mentioned he had dedicated crimes in the jail camp.
“Probably it will likely be farther from Moscow and legal professionals could have problem getting into this colony and we won’t have entry to Alexei,” she mentioned on Monday.
“It’s not a query of his freedom, it’s a query of his life … They are the identical individuals that attempted to kill him already … This is what we’re afraid of.”
Navalny was jailed final 12 months when he returned to Russia after receiving medical therapy in Germany following a poison assault with a Soviet-era nerve toxin throughout a go to to Siberia in 2020. Navalny blamed Putin for the assault, a cost the Kremlin denies.
Yarmysh mentioned Navalny anticipated the Lefortovo court docket in Moscow to hand down the total 13-year sentence that the prosecution had requested – however that Navalny’s work would proceed.
“I’m utterly certain that Alexei will not be in jail for (an additional) 13 years. Putin himself will not final that lengthy,” she mentioned.
“And we now understand how to talk with Alexei and the way he can supervise our exercise from jail.”
After the final listening to on March 15, Navalny struck a sometimes defiant tone, saying on Instagram: “If the jail time period is the value of my human proper to say issues that want to be mentioned … then they’ll ask for 113 years. I cannot resign my phrases or deeds.”
Many of Navalny’s most distinguished allies have left Russia somewhat than face restrictions or jail at residence.
Yarmysh herself is on a needed record, and left Russia final 12 months after a court docket restricted her freedom of motion for 18 months, alleging breaches of COVID-19 security guidelines.
(Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
