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Expenses towards criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin may lengthen his jail sentence to many years.
Jailed Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny has appeared in a Russian court docket to defend himself on new extremism expenses, which may see his jail sentence prolonged by a number of years.
Monday’s court docket listening to was held on the IK-6 penal colony in Melkhovo, the place Navalny is being held, 235 kilometers (145 miles) east of Moscow.
He appeared skinny, had close-cropped hair and was wearing a black jail uniform, in keeping with reporters in Russia who had been allowed to just about cowl the proceedings.
In an try and face the court docket’s expenses, Navalny mentioned: “Given the present circumstances and the prison legislation, you need to withdraw.”
He’s a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin Already serving Sentenced to 11.5 years in jail on fraud and different expenses, expenses he says are trumped up.
He says the brand new “terrorism” expenses introduced towards him in April are a “silly” try and additional silence him.
Members of Navalny’s staff worry the brand new expenses may land him in jail for as much as 30 years and declare he has not been advised the small print as a result of he was in solitary confinement with solely a mug and a The e book was allowed.
Courtroom papers final month confirmed the brand new expenses relate to 6 totally different articles of the prison code, together with inciting and financing extremist actions and forming an extremist group.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned the Russian authorities was “not following this trial”.
Additionally final week was Navalny’s aide Lilia Chanysheva Punished Jailed for seven-and-a-half years for “creating an extremist group,” a court docket order Navalny’s supporters mentioned was “politically motivated.”
However it isn’t but clear what incidents these extremism allegations relate to.
In line with Reuters, one has to do with the “resurgence of Nazism” – a potential reference to Navalny’s declarations of help for Ukraine.
Ukraine and its Western allies dismiss the accusation as baseless.
In April, Russian researchers connected Navalny on the loss of life of the well-known navy blogger Vladilin Tatarsky, who was killed by a bomb in a restaurant in St. Petersburg. Navalny’s allies have denied any connection.
Navalny, a former lawyer, rose to prominence 10 years in the past by alleging widespread corruption in his nation.
He returned to Russia in 2021 from Germany, the place he was handled for what assessments confirmed was an try and poison him with a nerve agent in Siberia.
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied makes an attempt to kill him and infrequently refuses to touch upon the imprisonment of Navalny and his supporters.
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