Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is seen on screen via a video link as he is sentenced to charges of embezzlement and contempt of court at the IK-2 prison complex in the town of Pokrov, Vladimir Region on January 22 March 2022.
– | Afp | beautiful pictures
A Russian court sentenced Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to prison on charges of large-scale fraud on Tuesday, a move that is likely to see a time when President Vladimir’s most famous critic Putin spent many more years in prison.
Navalny is currently serving a two-and-a-half-time sentence in a prison camp east of Moscow for parole violations related to charges he says were fabricated to hinder his political ambitions.
In the latest criminal case against him, which he also denied was politically motivated, he could face up to 13 years extra to that sentence.
A skinny Navalny stood beside his lawyers in a room full of prison security officers as the judge read out the charges against him. The 45-year-old appeared unfazed, looking down as he flipped through court documents.
Prosecutors asked the court to send him to a maximum-security penal colony for 13 years for fraud and contempt of court. A ruling is expected late Tuesday.
Navalny was jailed last year upon returning to Russia after receiving medical treatment in Germany following a Soviet-era nerve agent attack during a visit to Siberia in 2020. Navalny blamed Putin for the attack. .
The Kremlin said it saw no evidence that Navalny was poisoned and denied any Russian role if any.
After the final hearing of his case on March 15, Navalny took on his usual defiant tone, writing on Instagram: “If prison sentence were the price to pay for my human right to speak the things that need to be said … they can ask for 113 years. I will not renounce my word or my deed.”
Russian authorities have viewed Navalny and his supporters as subversives determined to destabilize Russia with Western backing. Many of Navalny’s allies have fled Russia instead of facing bans or being held at home.
Navalny’s opposition movement has been branded “extremist” and has closed down, although his supporters continue to express their political positions, including opposing his military intervention. Moscow into Ukraine, on social networks.
