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Putin critic Alexei Navalny has been unexpectedly transferred to a brand new jail that his supporters are describing as “one of the toughest and most torturous in Russia”.
The jailed Russian opposition chief – who obtained a 9-year sentence in March after being convicted of fraud costs he argues are politically-motivated – was taken from Correctional Colony No.2. in Prokov, about 65 miles outdoors of Moscow, to the IK-6 penal colony farther east in Melekhovo, in accordance with Russian state media.
“Even if the reports about Navalny being transferred to the Melekhovo Penal Colony are true, it is hardly a relief. This colony is known to be one of the toughest and most torturous in Russia,” Anna Veduta, the vice chairman of the Navalny-founded Anti-Corruption Basis, stated in an announcement obtained by Each day Publish.
“Before Navalny’s appeal to a nine-year sentence in a maximum-security prison was upheld, there were already rumors he would be transferred to this colony,” Veduta’s assertion added. “Navalny handed a message saying: ‘the prisoners from the strict regime colony ‘Melekhovo’ write that prison authorities are equipping a ‘prison within a prison’ for me there. They say that if you Google ‘Melekhovo’ there will be stories of how they pull out convicts’ nails.”
NAVALNY: RUSSIA’S UKRAINE INVASION IS PUTIN’S ‘STUPID WAR’
Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny is seen on a display through a video hyperlink from the IK-2 corrective penal colony in Pokrov throughout a courtroom listening to to contemplate an enchantment towards his jail sentence in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, Could 24.
(REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina)
Navalny’s spokesperson stated Tuesday that his authorized group wasn’t made conscious of the switch.
Kira Yarmysh tweeted that Navalny’s lawyer went to go to him on the Correctional Colony No. 2 facility, however after ready at a checkpoint, was instructed by employees there that “there is no such convict here.”
Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny is seen through a video hyperlink supplied by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, standing subsequent to his layers throughout a courtroom session in Pokrov on March 22
(AP Picture/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Veduta additionally stated “Alexei might be on his way to the Far East right now with the authorities using the reports about Melekhovo to deceive and placate the public” and that “we will not be able to confirm Navalny’s whereabouts before his lawyers have access to him.”
Alexei Navalny used a courtroom look in late Could to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.
(REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina)
In 2020, Navalny survived an assassination try that he blamed on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Putin’s loudest opponent in Russia, Alexei Navalny is in the hands of the very same people that tried to assassinate him in August 2020,” Veduta added. “His sudden supposed transfer is of extreme concern.”
Each day Publish’ Liz Friden contributed to this report.
