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The Russian authorities are searching for a 13-year jail sentence for opposition chief Alexei Navalny in a trial that’s extensively seen as politically motivated
MOSCOW — The Russian authorities are searching for a 13-year jail sentence for opposition chief Alexei Navalny in a trial Kremlin critics see as an try and maintain President Vladimir Putin’s most ardent foe in jail for so long as attainable.
Navalny, who’s already serving 2 1/2 years in a penal colony east of Moscow, has been charged with fraud and contempt of court docket. The prosecution accuses him of embezzling cash that he and his basis raised over time and of insulting a choose throughout a earlier trial. Navalny has rejected the allegations as politically motivated.
Of their closing arguments on Tuesday, the prosecution requested for 13 years in a most safety jail for the anti-corruption crusader and a 1.2 million-ruble (roughly $10,700) fantastic. It wasn’t instantly clear if Navalny is predicted to serve this sentence concurrently together with his present one or on high of it.
Navalny’s high ally, Leonid Volkov, who has left Russia the place he’s dealing with a number of felony circumstances himself, claimed Tuesday in a Fb submit that the authorities need the politician to stay in jail “till the tip of lifetime of one of many two folks — Navalny himself or Vladimir Putin.”
After the prosecution’s closing arguments, the choose introduced a quick recess earlier than listening to the protection’s statements.
The trial, which opened precisely a month in the past, unfolded in a makeshift courtroom within the jail colony hours away from Moscow the place Navalny is serving a sentence for parole violations. Navalny’s supporters have criticized the authorities’ determination to maneuver the proceedings there from a courthouse in Moscow, saying it has successfully restricted entry to the proceedings for the media and supporters.
Navalny, 45, has appeared at hearings carrying jail garb and made a number of elaborate speeches through the trial, decrying the costs towards him as bogus.
Navalny was arrested in January 2021 instantly upon his return from Germany, the place he spent 5 months convalescing from a poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin, a declare Russian officers vehemently denied. Shortly after the arrest, a court docket sentenced him to 2 1/2 years in jail over the parole violations stemming from a 2014 suspended sentence in a fraud case that Navalny insists was politically pushed.
Following Navalny’s imprisonment, authorities unleashed a sweeping crackdown on his associates and supporters. His closest allies have left Russia after dealing with a number of felony prices, and his Basis for Combating Corruption and a community of almost 40 regional workplaces have been outlawed as extremist — a designation that exposes folks concerned to prosecution.
Final month, Russian officers added Navalny and numerous his associates to a state registry of extremists and terrorists.
A number of felony circumstances have been launched towards Navalny individually, main his associates to counsel the Kremlin intends to maintain him behind bars for so long as attainable.
Members of Navalny’s protection group have complained they weren’t allowed to deliver cellphones or laptops containing case information into the courtroom on the penal colony.
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