Russian judges have halted new criminal proceedings for the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny as supporters say he has not contacted his lawyers in nearly two weeks and a UN official has said his absence amounted to a “forced disappearance”.
The courts halted seven judicial hearings on Monday “until [Navalny’s] whereabouts [is] established”, his lawyers said, further raising concerns that the Kremlin critic could be muzzled or even killed as Vladimir Putin has announced plans to extend his rule for a fifth presidential term.
Navalny, who has been sentenced to nearly three decades in prison, disappeared from a prison in the Vladimir region near Moscow last week, and was suspected to have been transferred into a “special regime” colony, where he could be held incommunicado under Russia’s harshest prison regime for years.
Kira Yarmysh, an aide to Navalny, said his team had sent requests to nearly 200 Russian pre-trial detention centres searching for more information on the missing opposition leader but had not been able to find him.
The Kremlin has not answered questions on Navalny’s whereabouts, with Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying his team had “neither the intention nor the ability to track the fate of prisoners.”
Supporters are also worried that he may have been hospitalised after collapsing earlier this month due to poor sanitation and nutrition in Vladimir’s IK-6 prison, where he was serving a prison sentence on fraud charges. He was sentenced to a further 19 years in a “special regime” colony on extremism charges in August. He has contended that the charges against him are political.
“I am greatly concerned that the Russian authorities will not disclose Mr Navalny’s whereabouts and wellbeing for such a prolonged period of time, which amounts to enforced disappearance,” said Mariana Katzarova, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation.
“I have learned that the court hearing on the violations of Mr Navalny’s human rights in detention, scheduled for Friday, did not take place. Mr Navalny’s lawyers, who have been prevented from meeting him since 6 December, were told by the court that their client is no longer held in the Vladimir region, without providing any further details,” Katzarova said.
Navalny’s disappearance comes as Putin launches his campaign for a fifth presidential term. He is the longest-serving Kremlin leader since Stalin and could surpass him if he continues to run for a sixth term in power.
Navalny’s supporters have launched an anti-Putin guerrilla campaign including billboards in Moscow, St Petersburg and Novosibirsk with a QR-code linking to a website that calls for Putin critics to use nonviolent “partisan” tactics to voice their dissent.
Navalny was poisoned in Russia with novichok in 2020, evacuated to Germany for treatment, and then returned to Russia in 2021, where he was arrested, convicted on fraud and extremism charges, and sentenced to three decades in prison. His supporters say he has suffered from mysterious stomach ailments in prison and believe that he is likely to be kept in prison for as long as Putin remains in power.