RUSSIAN COURT TO CONSIDER NEW CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST NAVALNY NEXT WEEK

Tue 08 February 2022:

On Tuesday, a Moscow court announced that hearings in two lawsuits against Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny will begin next week. Navalny’s prison sentence might be increased by more than ten years if he is convicted in these crimes. Navalany is now being held in custody.

He was jailed last year. Navalny, most vocal domestic critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin has survived a poisoning attempt last year. He blames Russian government for the attack.

The Moscow Lefortovsky district court said it will hold preliminary hearings on charges of fraud and contempt of court against Navalny on February 15.

The fraud case was launched in December 2020, while Navalny, 45, was recovering in Germany after narrowly surviving a nerve agent poisoning.

Investigators accuse Navalny of stealing for personal use more than $4.7 million (4.1 million euros) of donations that were given to his organisations. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Navalny also faces up to six months in prison for contempt of court during one of his hearings last year when he was jailed for more than two years on old fraud charges.

He is currently serving his sentence in a penal colony outside Moscow.

Navalny’s lawyer, Olga Mikhailova, informed the TASS news agency that Navalny will not be taken to the Moscow court and that the proceedings will take place in his prison.

Navalny’s assassination and poisoning drew considerable outrage from around the world, as well as sanctions from Western governments.

Navalny’s organizations were labeled “extremist” and shut down after his detention, and several of his top aides fled Russia for fear of being prosecuted.

Last year, authorities opened a new extremism investigation into Navalny, which may result in him serving another ten years in prison.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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