The Moscow City Court passed a sentence on Alexei Navalny: the oppositionist was sentenced to 19 years in a special regime colony. The court decision of the Moscow City Court on “extremist” charges was announced at an off-site meeting in correctional colony No. 6 in Melehovo, Vladimir Region, where the politician is kept.
There are only 11 such “special” colonies in Russia. The institutions are designed for especially dangerous recidivists sentenced to death, but not shot because of the moratorium, as well as for those who received a life sentence. Under a special regime, meetings with lawyers are much stricter, visits and parcels are strictly limited, such a type of penalty as placement in solitary confinement is officially allowed.
Navalny is currently serving a 9-year prison sentence for “fraud”. He was convicted in January 2021 after miraculously surviving poisoning and returning to Russia from Germany, where he received treatment. According to the conclusion of German doctors, they tried to poison him with a substance from the Novichok group.
In April of this year, Navalny said that a “terrorism” case had also been opened against him and accused the Kremlin of seeking to punish him for criticizing him with life imprisonment. For the first time, Navalny’s associates say, an oppositionist is being tried “under a political article for political activity.” In their opinion, the process is indicative.
On his birthday, the 47-year-old founder of the FBK said that he was in a good mood, despite all the difficulties of being in the colony. During his stay in IK-6, the politician was placed in a punishment cell 16 times. Human rights activists have repeatedly expressed concern about Navalny’s state of health, calling the actions of the administration of the correctional facility arbitrariness. Regarding the new verdict, Navalny said on his channel:
“The number doesn’t matter. I understand very well that, like many political prisoners, I am serving a life sentence. Where life is measured by the duration of my life or the life of this regime. The verdict number is not for me. She is for you. They want to frighten you, not me, and deprive you of the will to resist. You are being forced to surrender your Russia without a fight to a gang of traitors, thieves and scoundrels who have seized power. Putin should not achieve his goal. Don’t lose the will to resist.”
In addition to Navalny, the former technical director of the Navalny LIVE YouTube channel, Daniel Kholodny, was involved in the case of extremism. He was sentenced to 8 years in a penal colony, his lawyer Svetlana Davydova said.
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