In the penal camp: New trial of Kremlin opponent Navalny begins

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“It is impossible to see or hear the court,” Navalny’s press spokeswoman Kira Jarmysch wrote on Twitter on Tuesday about the trial, which is being held about 160 miles northeast of Moscow in Navalny’s penal colony. Journalists were therefore denied access to a preparatory meeting before the actual trial began.

No one is allowed on the territory of the detention center, said the director of Navalny’s “Fund for the fight against corruption”, Ivan Zhdanov. “The process is completely closed.” Zhdanov documented his statements with a photo on his Telegram channel, which is supposed to show the fence of the penal colony. It shows a poster stating that photography and filming is prohibited.

Navalny has been in prison for more than two years. He was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok in Siberia in the summer of 2020 and arrested at a Moscow airport in January 2021 after returning from Germany, where he was treated after the poison attack.

Navalny is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence for alleged fraud. Now the prosecution has opened a new trial with seven charges – including the alleged creation and financing of an extremist organization. If found guilty, the 47-year-old faces up to 30 years in prison. Internationally, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin’s best-known domestic political opponent is considered a political prisoner.

(SDA)

Source: Blick