Aleksei A. Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition chief, stated on Wednesday that Russian authorities had initiated “absurd” new terrorism costs towards him that would result in life in jail.
Mr. Navalny’s feedback, which had been posted on his workforce’s Twitter account, got here as he appeared by way of video hyperlink at a court docket listening to over separate extremism costs which might be extensively seen as politically motivated.
Mr. Navalny, who began as an anticorruption activist earlier than changing into one of many Kremlin’s most outstanding critics, is already serving a sentence in a penal colony for fraud and contempt of court docket. Since returning to Russia after recovering in Germany from a poisoning try that the West has blamed on the Kremlin, he has repeatedly confronted new costs from Russian authorities.
In the feedback relayed from the courtroom by his supporters on social media, Mr. Navalny stated that an investigator had knowledgeable him on Tuesday {that a} terrorism case had been initiated towards him that might be heard in a separate trial by a navy court docket. The Russian authorities didn’t affirm the costs.
Mr. Navalny stated that he faces as much as 30 years over the extremism case and as much as a life sentence over the terrorism one. He stated that the authorities alleged that he had dedicated terrorist acts whereas in jail. He didn’t elaborate on the specifics of the most recent accusation however known as the declare “absurd.”
Wednesday’s hearing was focused on how much time Mr. Navalny can have to familiarize himself with the extremism case against him. That case is linked to his anticorruption foundation, which the authorities declared an “extremist organization” and effectively banned in 2021.
The judge gave him until May 5, Mr. Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said, and ruled that the trial would be held behind closed doors. Ms. Yarmysh said that the short period given to Mr. Navalny to read his case materials meant that the trial would begin soon, probably before the end of May.
“I insist that the attempt to close the process is not an attempt to simply restrict me in getting acquainted with the case,” Mr. Navalny said, according to his supporters. “It is an attempt to make sure no one finds out about it.”
Mr. Navalny, a lawyer, exposed widespread corruption among the Russian elite and around President Vladimir V. Putin and created a rival political organization to the Kremlin’s, with regional divisions and supporters across the country.
The Kremlin has put pressure on his supporters for years, but the situation escalated in 2020, when Mr. Navalny was poisoned in what he said was an attempt to murder him by the Kremlin. The Russian authorities denied involvement.
In January 2021, Mr. Navalny returned to Moscow after spending months in Germany recovering from the poisoning.
Mr. Navalny and his supporters have said that he is in deteriorating health and have accused prison doctors at a penal colony east of Moscow of giving him substandard care. He says he has been repeatedly placed in “punishment cells” for trivial reasons.
A photo from the courtroom posted on Twitter by Mr. Navalny’s supporters showed him on the video link in a prison uniform and looking thin and tired.
Source: www.nytimes.com