Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny appears at a digital camera whereas talking from a jail through a video hyperlink, supplied by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, throughout a court docket session in Petushki, Vladimir area, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Moscow, Russia, Monday, Jan. 17, 2022. (AP Photograph/Denis Kaminev)
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny expects to listen to a verdict on Tuesday in Russia's newest prison case towards him, during which prosecutors search to have him despatched to a maximum-security penal colony for 13 years on expenses 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 expenses that he says have been trumped as much as gag him as a political opponent of President Vladimir Putin.
His nationwide opposition motion has been labeled "extremist" and shut down, however he has continued to situation messages on social media from jail via his authorized crew and aides, just lately urging Russians to oppose the conflict in Ukraine.
Navalny's spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, stated final week that prosecutors had requested a switch to a maximum-security jail as a result of they stated he had dedicated crimes within the jail camp.
"Most likely it will likely be farther from Moscow and legal professionals can have issue coming into this colony and we won't have entry to Alexei," she stated on Monday.
"It’s not a query of his freedom, it’s a query of his life ... They're the identical individuals that attempted to kill him already ... That is what we're afraid of."
Navalny was jailed final 12 months when he returned to Russia after receiving medical remedy 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 stated Navalny anticipated the Lefortovo court docket in Moscow at hand down the total 13-year sentence that the prosecution had requested - however that Navalny's work would proceed.
"I am fully positive that Alexei will not be in jail for (an additional) 13 years. Putin himself will not final that lengthy," she stated.
"And we now know how you can 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 worth of my human proper to say issues that have to be stated ... then they'll ask for 113 years. I can't resign my phrases or deeds." Learn full story
Lots of Navalny's most distinguished allies have left Russia slightly than face restrictions or jail at house.
Yarmysh herself is on a wished 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. Learn full story
(Writing by Kevin Liffey;Modifying by Bernadette Baum)
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