2023-08-04 16:14:09
Alexei Navalny
The opposition politician (here on a screenshot of the broadcast from the courtroom) is being held in a penal colony under inhumane conditions.
(Photo: IMAGO/SNA)
Moscow A Russian court has sentenced the imprisoned Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny to a total of 19 years in a prison camp. This includes the nine years in a prison camp to which Navalny has already been sentenced, his spokeswoman said when asked by the German Press Agency. A written verdict, from which this would emerge exactly, is not yet available.
Navalny was accused of alleged extremism. The allegations related, among other things, to his anti-corruption foundation. According to his comrades-in-arms, all activities of the foundation are now to be classified as criminal offenses with retrospective effect.
Navalny took the verdict calmly. He had predicted he would be sentenced to just under the prosecutor’s requirement of 20 years.
The new verdict against him serves to intimidate society, wrote Navalny. The guilty verdict is intended to discourage critical sections of the Russian population from publicly opposing Putin and Russia’s war in Ukraine. “Putin should not achieve his goals. Don’t lose the will to resist,” said Navalny on Friday after the judge’s verdict in his prison camp.
“19 years in a colony with a special regime. The number doesn’t matter. I understand very well that, like many political prisoners, I am serving a life sentence,” he said. Lifetime refers to either the duration of his own life or the “lifetime of this regime”. Navalny’s team had always said that he would not be free as long as Kremlin chief Putin remained in power.
Navalny (2nd from left), lawyers and Daniel Kholodny (right)
Navalny’s foundation employee Kholodny was also found guilty.
(Photo: IMAGO/SNA)
Navalny emphasized that the sentence was not intended for himself, but was aimed at people to scare them. “They want to make you surrender your Russia without a fight to this gang of traitors, thieves and scoundrels who have seized power,” he said, according to the message circulated on social networks.
Numerous other political prisoners in Russian custody
He also asked for solidarity with political prisoners. In addition to Navalny, numerous other members of the opposition are imprisoned in Russian prison camps, who are internationally regarded as political prisoners. Just a few days ago, Vladimir Kara-Mursa was sentenced to 25 years in a prison camp. It is the longest jail sentence ever imposed on a government critic in Russia.
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock described the verdict as “blatant injustice”. Putin fears nothing more than standing up against war and corruption and for democracy.
Navalny’s team in exile explained that the sentence should be served in a camp under special prison conditions that are even stricter than those in the previous colony.
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His employees, who are in exile in the EU, commented on a live broadcast on YouTube that Navalny came into the hall alone, smiling like a “king”, without shackles. His brother Oleg Navalny, who had himself been imprisoned, said that Alexei was in good “moral and physical condition”.
His supporters also criticize the fact that the trial did not take place before the Moscow City Court, but directly in Navalny’s penal colony in Melekhovo, 260 kilometers from Moscow. There, isolated activists gathered to support the opposition leader. According to reports from his team, Navalny is being tortured through inhuman prison conditions and permanent isolation.
Important opposition figure Navalny
Human rights activists repeatedly point out Navalny’s ailing health, who barely survived a nerve agent attack in the summer of 2020. Navalny accuses the Russian domestic secret service FSB and President Vladimir Putin of being behind the assassination three years ago. The Kremlin denies this.
Journalists in front of the penal camp in Melechowo
The media representatives could only follow the verdict via live stream in another room in the camp.
(Photo: IMAGO/ITAR-TASS)
After treatment in Germany, Navalny returned to his homeland. He was arrested at the airport.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine more than 17 months ago, the government has massively stepped up repression of its critics. Navalny is considered the most important adversary of President Vladimir Putin. “If there was a regime change tomorrow and the current opposition had a chance to help shape the new order, Navalny would be one of the most important figures,” Russian political scientist Alexander Libman told the Handelsblatt this week.
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