A Russian judge on Tuesday sentenced Alexei Navalny to nine years in a colony with drastic conditions, further aggravating the crackdown on the main opponent of the Kremlin while Moscow is in full offensive in Ukraine.
The Russian power is strengthening its legal arsenal in all directions to stifle any criticism of power. Last example, the adoption, Tuesday, of a law providing for strong sanctions to punish the “false information” on the action of the Russian institutions abroad.
The sentence of nine years of detention pronounced against the opponent cancels and replaces that of two and a half years which he was serving, and includes the year of prison already served.
Alexeï Navalny, who had been imprisoned for fraud in early 2021, was sentenced this time for “fraud” and “contempt of court”, charges he considers political.
Barring an unlikely victory on appeal, he will have to be detained in a “severe regime” colony, isolated places and where conditions are much harsher than in so-called “general” colonies, such as that of Pokrov where he is currently imprisoned.
It is within the walls of this penitentiary camp, 100 km from Moscow, that the opponent was tried since mid-February in an improvised courtroom.
“Putin is afraid of the truth, I have always said that. The fight against censorship, bringing the truth to the people of Russia, remains our priority,” he said after his sentencing, according to posts on his Twitter account.
Lawyers arrested
The charismatic 45-year-old anti-corruption activist appeared at the hearing on Tuesday in a convict’s outfit, his face emaciated, in the company of his lawyers.
After the verdict, the latter were briefly arrested on leaving the prison, noted an AFP journalist on the spot. Their arrest came after police told them to leave the street where they were speaking to the press.
About a hundred journalists were able to attend a video broadcast of the hearing in a room set up in the penal colony.
Only one supporter of the opponent came to demonstrate in front of the prison.
“Navalny is a hero, […] people stay at home, they are afraid, ”commented the latter, Léonid Banionis.
In the case on Tuesday, Alexei Navalny was accused of embezzling millions of rubles in donations to his anti-corruption organizations and of “contempt of court” during a previous trial.
Lui maintains that these accusations were orchestrated by the Kremlin to keep him in prison as long as possible.
Renowned for his investigations into the corruption of the elites, Alexeï Navalny has suffered for more than two years from an uninhibited repression of power.
In August 2020, he fell seriously ill, victim of poisoning with a nerve agent, ordered according to him by the Russian president. The Kremlin denies this, but Russian authorities have never investigated the alleged assassination attempt.
Upon his return to Russia in January 2021, after five months of convalescence, he was arrested and sentenced to two and a half years in prison for a “fraud” case dating back to 2014 and involving the French company Yves Rocher.
In June 2021, its organizations were designated “extremist” and banned, pushing many activists into exile. Others have been arrested and face heavy prison sentences.
Opposition to the conflict in Ukraine
This relentless repression has been accompanied by the banning of the last media outlets and NGOs critical of the Kremlin.
The Supreme Court of Russia thus rejected on Tuesday a request for suspension of the dissolution of the NGO Memorial, which was based on an order of the European Court of Human Rights, confirming the dismantling of this pillar of civil society. .
From his penal colony, Alexeï Navalny continues to transmit messages castigating the power of Vladimir Putin and the offensive in Ukraine.
He has continued to call for demonstrations against the conflict despite the risks involved, the authorities having further strengthened their legal arsenal, with heavy prison sentences at stake, to silence any criticism of the Russian army.
At the same time, the government has also tightened its grip on the dissemination of information, blocking access in Russia to dozens of media and several foreign social networks.