2023-12-16 17:14:29
It has now been ten days since those close to Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny have heard from him. According to his supporters this Friday, December 15, he was taken from his prison to an unknown destination, a move that could mean his transfer to a penitentiary with harsher conditions. Kira Iarmich, the anti-corruption activist’s exiled spokesperson, said Navalny had “left the Vladimir region”, about 250 kilometers east of Moscow, where he had until then been imprisoned.
According to the Russian daily Kommersant, the court which examined a complaint by Navalny against the administration of his prison indicated that the opponent had left his colony “in accordance with the verdict of the Moscow Municipal Court of August 4, 2023, which came into force “. This decision sentences Alexeï Navalny to 19 years in prison for “extremism”.
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He must therefore move to a “special regime” colony, the category of establishments where the conditions of detention are the harshest and which are usually reserved for lifers and the most dangerous prisoners. “Navalny’s arrival (in his new colony) will be notified within the framework of current legislation,” says the document read in court, according to Kommersant.
Nothing has been known about Alexey for 8 days. While we don’t know where he is, he’s alone with the people who once tried to kill him. We need to find him as soon as possible.
If you know for sure about Alexey’s whereabouts, write to: [email protected]#WhereisNavalny— Kira Yarmysh (@Kira_Yarmysh) December 13, 2023
Problem: no one knows where it is and where it will be sent. “We do not know to which destination exactly,” wrote Kira Iarmich on X (ex-Twitter), specifying that this transfer would have taken place on December 11. “Since December 6, his lawyers have not been allowed to enter the colony where he was serving his sentence under various pretexts, and he himself was no longer connected by video link to court hearings. Five days later, staff at the penal colony said that Navalny was no longer among its detainees and that they did not know where he was currently,” says the Russian exile newspaper Meduza, whose journalists work from Latvia.
Opposition media questions
In Russia, transfers from one penal colony to another can take several weeks of train travel with stages, with detainees’ relatives remaining without news during this period. However, Meduza notes that no journalist questioned Vladimir Putin about this lack of news from Alexei Navalny during his major end-of-year press conference on Thursday, December 14. His mysterious disappearance only seems to interest the opposition media.
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However, in the absence of official information, rumors are multiplying. According to Svoboda, the Russian-speaking section of Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty, Russia is home to around 30 special regime prisons, some of which (like the Black Dolphin or the White Swan) are infamous. “According to the law, life-sentenced prisoners or particularly dangerous repeat offenders serve their sentences there,” says Svoboda.
Head of the NGO Russia Behind Bars, Olga Romanova believes that this type of transfer is credible. According to her, it is “about making as difficult as possible Alexeï Navalny’s contacts with the outside world”, she explains to the Current Time television channel. As for the rumors according to which the opponent was hospitalized for health problems or simply put in solitary confinement to be exchanged, they are difficult to convince. “It would be great, but it’s unlikely,” regrets Olga Romanova.
Concern of several Western capitals
Faced with this silence, the international community is beginning to mobilize. “France considers Russia responsible for the health of its detainees, in particular political prisoners, and recalls its international obligations relating to respect for human rights,” underlined Christophe Lemoine, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement, adding that Alexeï Navalny’s health had “severely deteriorated since his detention” in January 2021. Earlier in the week, the White House said it was “very concerned” and had to again demanded the release of the opponent.
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The United Nations Human Rights Committee was contacted by the anti-corruption foundation created by Navalny in 2011. “We call on the UN to confirm these violations and to ask Russia to provide information on the location where Navalny is, proof of life and immediate access to legal representatives,” investigative journalist Maria Pevchikh said on X.
Alexeï Navalny, imprisoned since February 2021 after being the victim of an attempted poisoning, is the main Russian opponent. He has, on several occasions, declared his intention to run in the presidential election of March 17, 2024, an election in which Putin, aged 71 and already in his fourth term, unsurprisingly declared himself a candidate on December 8 . In early December, Russian authorities initiated new charges of “vandalism” against the charismatic anti-corruption activist, which could add three more years of detention to his sentence.
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