Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny throughout a court docket session in Petushki, Russia, on Jan. 17, 2022. (Denis Kaminev / AP)
MOSCOW --
The Russian authorities are searching for a 13-year jail sentence for opposition chief Alexei Navalny in a trial Kremlin critics see as an try and hold President Vladimir Putin's most ardent foe in jail for so long as attainable.
Navalny, who's already serving 2 1/2 years in a penal colony east of Moscow, has been charged with fraud and contempt of court docket. The prosecution accuses him of embezzling cash that he and his basis raised over time and of insulting a choose throughout a earlier trial. Navalny has rejected the allegations as politically motivated.
Of their closing arguments on Tuesday, the prosecution requested for 13 years in a most safety jail for the anti-corruption crusader and a 1.2 million-ruble (roughly US$10,700) fantastic. It wasn't instantly clear if Navalny is predicted to serve this sentence concurrently together with his present one or on prime of it.
Navalny's prime ally, Leonid Volkov, who has left Russia the place he's going through a number of prison circumstances himself, claimed Tuesday in a Fb publish that the authorities need the politician to stay in jail "till the top of lifetime of one of many two folks -- Navalny himself or Vladimir Putin."
After the prosecution's closing arguments, the choose introduced a short recess earlier than listening to the defence's statements.
The trial, which opened precisely a month in the past, unfolded in a makeshift courtroom within the jail colony hours away from Moscow the place Navalny is serving a sentence for parole violations. Navalny's supporters have criticized the authorities' determination to maneuver the proceedings there from a courthouse in Moscow, saying it has successfully restricted entry to the proceedings for the media and supporters.
Navalny, 45, has appeared at hearings carrying jail garb and made a number of elaborate speeches throughout the trial, decrying the fees in opposition to him as bogus.
Navalny was arrested in January 2021 instantly upon his return from Germany, the place he spent 5 months convalescing from a poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin, a declare Russian officers vehemently denied. Shortly after the arrest, a court docket sentenced him to 2 1/2 years in jail over the parole violations stemming from a 2014 suspended sentence in a fraud case that Navalny insists was politically pushed.
Following Navalny's imprisonment, authorities unleashed a sweeping crackdown on his associates and supporters. His closest allies have left Russia after going through a number of prison costs, and his Basis for Combating Corruption and a community of practically 40 regional places of work had been outlawed as extremist -- a designation that exposes folks concerned to prosecution.
Final month, Russian officers added Navalny and quite a few his associates to a state registry of extremists and terrorists.
A number of prison circumstances have been launched in opposition to Navalny individually, main his associates to recommend the Kremlin intends to maintain him behind bars for so long as attainable.
Members of Navalny's defence staff have complained they weren't allowed to convey cellphones or laptops containing case recordsdata into the courtroom on the penal colony.
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