(Washington) Washington accused Moscow on Friday of not respecting the rights of imprisoned Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Putin’s main critic, in particular by not letting him “communicate freely with his lawyer”.
Posted at 8:07 p.m.
“The United States is deeply concerned that the Russian government is arbitrarily and increasingly interfering with the rights of Alexei Navalny,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
“The prison authorities hampered the preparation of his defense and his ability to communicate freely with his lawyer”, for example by monitoring their meetings or causing delays in their exchange of documents, he explained.
This is “new evidence of politically motivated harassment” targeting Alexei Navalny, as well as “his repeated solitary confinement for alleged minor offences”, continued Ned Price.
This highlights “the fear felt by those who speak the truth” in Russia, he concluded, calling once again for the immediate release of the opponent.
Thursday, Alexei Navalny claimed to have been deprived of confidential conversations with his lawyers.
In addition, according to him, each document exchanged with his defense will now be subject to a “verification for three days” by the prison administration.
“In truth, there is nothing left, formally, of my rights of defense, which were already quite illusory”, had regretted this 46-year-old anti-corruption activist.
Last March, Alexeï Navalny was sentenced to nine years in prison under a “severe” regime for charges of embezzlement which he considers fictitious.