NEW TRIAL AGAINST KREMLIN CRITIC NAVALNY OPENS FROM PRISON

Tue 15 February 2022:

A new trial against jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny began on Tuesday inside the prison colony outside Moscow where he is held, in a case that could see his sentence extended by more than a decade.

A video link showed Navalny in a prison uniform at the hearing, an AFP journalist reported. The opposition politician, who has spent a year behind bars after surviving a poison attack that he blames on the Kremlin, is accused of fresh fraud charges.

The hearing of Moscow’s Lefortovsky district court is taking place inside the maximum security prison where he is being held in Pokrov, some 100 kilometres east of Moscow.

The new fraud case against Navalny was launched in December 2020, while the 45-year-old was recovering in Germany after narrowly surviving a nerve agent poisoning.

Investigators accuse Navalny of stealing for personal use more than $4.7 million of donations that were given to his political organisations.

The charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Amnesty International described the hearing as a “sham trial, attended by prison guards rather than the media.”

“It’s obvious that the Russian authorities intend to ensure that Navalny doesn’t leave prison any time soon,” it said in a statement on Monday.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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