MELEKHOVO, Russia – Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny had an additional 19 years in a most safety penal colony added to his jail time period on Friday in a legal case that he mentioned was designed to cow the Russian folks into political submission.
Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest home critic, is already serving sentences totaling 11-1/2 years on fraud and different fees that he says are additionally bogus. His political motion has been outlawed and declared “extremist”.
A courtroom at his IK-6 penal colony in Melekhovo, about 235 km (145 miles) east of Moscow, on Friday dropped at a detailed his trial on six fees, together with inciting and financing extremist exercise and creating an extremist group.
Unconfirmed Russian media stories mentioned that Navalny, now 47, can be 74 years previous by the point he received out of jail in 2050.
Navalny mentioned in an announcement on social media launched through his attorneys and supporters that he was going through a life sentence behind bars until the present authorities fell first.
“Nineteen years in a maximum security penal colony. The number does not matter. I understand perfectly well that, like many political prisoners, I am serving a life sentence. Where the life sentence is measured by the length of my life or the length of the life of this regime,” mentioned Navalny.
“The sentencing number is not for me. It’s for you. You, not me, are being frightened and deprived of the will to resist. You are being forced to surrender your Russia without a fight to the gang of traitors, thieves and scoundrels who have seized power. Putin must not achieve his goal. Do not lose the will to resist.”
State prosecutors had requested for 20 years.
The fees relate to his function in his now-defunct motion inside Russia, which the authorities accused of attempting to foment a revolution by looking for to destabilize the socio-political state of affairs.
The US State Department referred to as the decision “an unjust conclusion to an unjust trial”, whereas the European Union condemned what it referred to as one other politically motivated ruling and referred to as for Navalny’s rapid launch.
Russia’s embassy in Washington denounced the State Department feedback as interference in Moscow’s inner affairs.
“This is trying to influence the work of the Russian Federation’s independent judicial system,” the embassy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
“With this belligerent reaction, the US authorities practically confirm the correct nature of the verdict… It is to the administration’s advantage to take ‘into its orbit’ for the sake of jolting the situation in our country.”
A small group of Navalny supporters had gathered exterior the penal colony however weren’t let in to listen to the decision.
The audio feed from the courtroom, the place the trial had been held behind closed doorways within the jail’s sports activities corridor, was so poor that it was virtually unattainable to make out what the choose, Andrei Suvorov, was saying.
Journalists weren’t let into the courtroom however in a position to watch proceedings on CCTV.
Dressed in darkish jail uniform and flanked by his attorneys, Navalny smiled often as he listened to the choose.
The former blogger, lawyer and corruption investigator has solid himself as a political martyr whose purpose is to exhibit to Russians that it’s attainable to withstand Putin, albeit at nice value.
“For a new, free, rich country to be born, it must have parents. Those who want it. Who expect it and who are willing to make sacrifices for its birth,” Navalny mentioned in his closing assertion final month.
Daniel Kholodny, a TV technician who labored for Navalny and who was sentenced on the identical time, was given eight years in jail.
Putin calls for unity
Putin, 70 and in energy since 1999, is predicted to run for an additional six-year presidential time period in 2024. With Russia waging what he calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine and locked in what he describes as an existential battle with the West, Putin says it’s important for the nation to stay united.
In February, Putin ordered the FSB safety service to boost its sport to “identify and stop the illegal activities of those who are trying to divide and weaken our society”.
Navalny, who within the 2010s introduced tens of hundreds of individuals onto the streets to oppose Putin’s rule, was detained in January 2021 after returning to Moscow from Germany, the place he had been handled for what Western consultants mentioned was poisoning by a Soviet-era nerve agent.
The Kremlin, which at one level accused him of working with the CIA to undermine Russia, denied involvement and denies persecuting Navalny. It has portrayed him as an agent of disruption and says he by no means represented critical political competitors, and that his case is solely a matter for the courts.
Navalny’s supporters solid him as a Russian model of South Africa’s Nelson Mandela, who will someday be free of jail to control the nation.
Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokeswoman, advised Reuters that he was cheerful and optimistic as a result of he believed in his trigger. She mentioned he might now be transferred to a different penal colony the place he would possibly face draconian situations.
He was additionally going through one other legal case on terrorism fees, she mentioned, which might additional prolong his sentence.
“Alexei is in prison for as long as Putin is in power,” mentioned Yarmysh. “Our main goal is to shorten the term.” —Reuters
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
