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Jailed Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny was convicted of “extremism” prices on Friday following closed jail court docket proceedings and sentenced to 19 years in a “particular regime” jail colony, on high of current sentences of greater than 11 years, all in instances broadly seen as trumped up for political retribution.
However the excessive nature of the sentence — which bars him from household visits and even letters for 10 years — shocked even pro-Kremlin figures. The particular regime jail colony, the harshest in Russia’s penal system, retains prisoners in cells with the lights continuously on, barred from talking.
“Navalny obtained horror,” pro-Kremlin analyst Sergei Markov wrote on Telegram. “Isn’t that an excessive amount of? Why these cruelties? Why can’t Navalny see his spouse? He’s not a killer. Rigidity ought to be utilized in different areas.”
In a remark posted on social media after the decision, Navalny stated the brutality of the sentence was designed to frighten Russians and he urged them to not lose the desire to withstand.
“I completely perceive that, like many political prisoners, I’m sitting on a life sentence. The place life is measured by the time period of my life or the time period of lifetime of this regime.”
“You might be being pressured to give up your nation of Russia with no battle to the gang of traitors, thieves, and scoundrels who’ve seized energy. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin should not obtain his aim,” his submit stated.
The cruel situations might also stop Navalny from maintaining his social media presence, maintained by means of his legal professionals and crew. Particular regime jail colonies are often reserved for these convicted to life imprisonment and for significantly harmful repeat offenders.
Navalny, who led the nation’s greatest liberal pro-democracy anti-corruption opposition motion, was convicted on prices of making an extremist neighborhood, incitement to extremism, financing extremism, rehabilitation of Nazism, involving minors in harmful acts and making a nongovernmental group that infringes on residents’ rights.
In reality, Navalny and the Anti-Corruption Basis that served because the umbrella group for his actions, primarily targeted on investigating huge public graft in Russia and on demanding free, democratic elections.
The Kremlin has successfully crushed Navalny, who’s acknowledged as a political prisoner by Amnesty Worldwide, and his supporters. In June 2021, Russian authorities banned three Navalny-linked organizations, together with the Anti-Corruption Basis and his political community, branding them as “extremist” in a transfer strongly condemned by Amnesty Worldwide and different international human rights organizations.
In Navalny’s trial on extremism prices, Russia’s extremely politicized justice system reached a brand new low — a closed trial in a jail inaccessible to the general public.
His 19-year sentence was in stark distinction to the court docket system’s remedy of Eduard Bitarov, a soldier who fatally stabbed his spouse 16 instances, was convicted of the killing however then freed final month by a army court docket in Rostov-on-Don as a result of he fought within the struggle in opposition to Ukraine.
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The trial was held in an unidentified room in Penal Colony Quantity 6 within the Vladimir area. Information media and even Navalny’s mother and father had been barred from attending, apart from 86 minutes on the primary day after they weren’t allowed within the courtroom however watched a video hyperlink with barely intelligible sound. An identical video hyperlink with poor high quality was used for the sentencing on Friday.
At the beginning of the extremism case, the prosecutor, Nadezhda Tikhonova, demanded that the trial be closed, claiming there was a “safety menace,” though it was not made clear what the menace was. Then the video display abruptly went clean, and court docket officers later introduced that the decide had closed the listening to.
Navalny survived a poisoning assault in August 2020 carried out, in response to the U.S. State Division, by Russian safety brokers.
In March, “Navalny,” a movie about how Navalny and his crew unmasked the Russian operatives liable for the poisoning, gained the Oscar for greatest documentary characteristic.
After recovering at a hospital in Germany, Navalny in January 2021 returned to Moscow the place he was imprisoned for greater than two years on alleged probation violations. Final 12 months, he was convicted of fraud prices and sentenced to an extra 9 years. Navalny has denied all wrongdoing, describing the fees as political. The European Courtroom of Human Rights additionally discovered that he was wrongfully prosecuted.
In his remaining assertion to the court docket throughout his most up-to-date trial, Navalny stated all Russians knew that an individual going through a court docket was “fully defenseless,” with out hope of justice. He described a Kafkaesque scene with 18 folks within the court docket, together with the decide, prosecutor, his legal professionals and 7 guards with their faces coated in black masks. The speech was launched by his crew.
The chairwoman of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Basis, Maria Pevchikh, stated on YouTube after the decision that her crew had in its possession the 50,000 web page secret trial paperwork within the case in opposition to him, the place there was no proof of any crime.
“They didn’t even attempt to compile an actual case,” she stated, displaying pages that included a photograph of snowmen holding anti-Putin placards, an article about Navalny within the Hill and different content material on the location together with the “who we’re” part, images of Madrid’s airport posted on-line by Navalny crew member Leonid Volkov and a photograph of Navalny’s co-defendant Daniil Kholodny, holding a duplicate of Time journal with Navalny on the quilt.
She stated Putin wished to bury Navalny in jail. “Nobody ought to discuss him. Nobody ought to keep in mind him,” Pevchikh stated.
However she continued, “Even from the darkest hell on Earth, from the jail the place he’s being slowly tortured to loss of life, Navalny’s voice remains to be heard.”
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In an announcement Thursday, Navalny stated one other case being ready in opposition to him — on terrorism prices — would doubtlessly add one other decade, though the regulation might restrict his imprisonment to 30 years.
Navalny stated the case was being ignored on state tv as a result of to the common citizen, a hefty sentence for “extremism” in a case with out victims and penalties “will appear clearly unfair to him, and he’ll secretly sympathize.”
“There isn’t any disgrace in selecting the most secure solution to oppose. There’s disgrace in doing nothing,” Navalny stated. “It’s shameful to let your self be intimidated. No matter sentence they’ve deliberate, it gained’t obtain its aim for those who perceive what it’s all about and reply, ‘I’m not afraid,’ with a day by day coldblooded, albeit small, contribution to the battle for freedom in Russia.”
Navalny, who suffers from extreme again ache, has misplaced 17 kilos in jail and seems gaunt and hollow-cheeked, but he managed to smile throughout Friday’s sentence.
Since his imprisonment he has been repeatedly handed harsh punishments — despatched no less than 15 instances to a solitary confinement cell with a cup, stool and one ebook, and a mattress that’s folded up throughout the day, for trivial offenses, equivalent to failing to do up his high button, or washing his arms a couple of minutes too early. Each night, a radio speaker blasts out the identical Putin speech, that can not be turned off.
All through his jail time period, he has maintained a social media presence, detailing the petty punishments and cruelty of the jail authorities, usually conveying darkish humor however refusing to indicate despair. He has lampooned Putin as a mediocre previous man, quivering in his bunker, afraid of his personal folks.
He has continuously exhorted Russians to do no matter they’ll to withstand Putin’s regime, and expounded on his goals of a rustic the place Russians will not be solely free, however completely happy. However folks should be prepared to make sacrifices for that to occur, he stated in his remaining assertion.
“Not everybody has to go to jail. It’s extra like a lottery, and I pulled out such a ticket. However everybody has to make some sacrifice, some effort.”
He has mused in regards to the which means of life and the significance of spiritual religion, of telling the reality and doing what is correct, regardless of how arduous it’s to bear the results.
“I like Russia,” he stated in his remaining assertion. “My mind tells me that it’s higher to stay in a free and affluent nation than in a corrupt and impoverished one.”
He added, “A rustic with out honest trials won’t ever be affluent. So now my mind says once more, it’s affordable and proper of me to battle for an impartial court docket, honest elections, to be in opposition to corruption, as a result of then I’ll obtain my aim and be capable of stay in my free, affluent Russia.”
Regardless of his trial on extremism prices, his crew, which is working principally from Vilnius, Lithuania, introduced plans for a global protest motion on Aug. 20, “Putin is a killer,” which requires demonstrations “in opposition to the bloody dictatorship he constructed and the monstrous struggle he unleashed.”
At instances, writing about his resolution to return to Russia and battle for political change, figuring out he confronted a sure jail time period, Navalny in contrast himself to an explorer in an area ship, taking off, stuffed with optimism, hoping to voyage “to a phenomenal new world.”
His cell was like a small, spartan house ship, with meals delivered by an automatic cart, and glossy steel plates and spoons.
“Sure, house journey is harmful. You possibly can arrive and there’s nothing there. The flight might be for much longer as a consequence of a navigational error. An unintended asteroid may destroy the ship and you would die,” he stated. “However usually, assist comes. A pleasant sign. Hyperspace tunnel hop, and also you’re there. Hugging your loved ones and pals in a phenomenal new world.”
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