Navalny’s appeal against nineteen years in prison rejected | Abroad

Navalny, 47, has been in custody since 2021. He ended up in jail when he returned from Germany. He had undergone medical treatment there after being poisoned in his own country in 2020. He is being held in a high-security penal colony about 250 kilometers east of Moscow. Navalny attended his appeal hearing in the capital via video link.

The well-known Kremlin critic has been repeatedly convicted in cases he calls politically motivated. The sentence of nineteen years in prison in August was in addition to a previous conviction of more than eleven years in prison. The authorities have now banned his political movement. Well-known supporters of Navalny have been arrested or fled abroad.

Navalny waged political battle against the Russian rulers for years. He organized opposition efforts to break the Kremlin’s power. He also established an anti-corruption foundation. He investigated alleged self-enrichment within the political elite. Navalny’s health is said to have continued to deteriorate during his captivity.

Navalny is being held in the IK-6 prison camp in Melechovo, about 250 kilometers from Moscow. He is regularly placed in solitary confinement. But he will now have to serve his new sentence in a prison camp “with a strict regime”. These establishments are reserved for life convicts and the most dangerous criminals in the Russian prison system.

According to one of his lawyers, Olga Mikhailova, her client could be sent to the camp “at any time” once the decision has been registered with the court. There, Navalny will also be able to communicate less with his lawyers and the outside world and he will receive fewer visitors.