The activist and lawyer has been on trial since mid-February behind the walls of his penal colony.
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Another illustration of growing repression in Russia. Alexei Navalny, main opponent of Vladimir Putin, was found guilty of “fraud” and “contempt of court” on Tuesday March 22 by a Russian judge. What pave the way for a new heavy prison sentence against the activist and lawyer, tried since mid-February behind the walls of his penal colony, 100 km east of Moscow, in an improvised court.
Investigators accuse the activist of embezzling millions of rubles in donations to his anti-corruption organizations and of “contempt of court” during one of his previous hearings. He denounces these accusations as fictitious and ordered by the Kremlin to keep him in prison as long as possible.
The prosecution had requested last week that the sentence of two and a half years of detention that the opponent has been serving for a little over a year be increased to 13 years of imprisonment.
Alexeï Navalny appeared at the hearing dressed in his convict uniform, his face emaciated, listening to the statement of the verdict with his hands in his pockets, between two laughs and discussions with his lawyers. At the end of the judgment, he could be transferred, at the request of the prosecution, to a prison in “hard diet”where the conditions of detention are much harsher and much further from Moscow.
In June 2021, his organizations, which had been campaigning for years across Russia, were designated “extremist” and banned on the spot, driving many activists into exile to avoid prosecution. Others have since been arrested and face heavy prison sentences.
This relentless crackdown, which has been accompanied by the banning of the last media outlets and NGOs critical of the Kremlin, has prompted an outcry in Western countries and sanctions against Moscow.