A Moscow court rejected Russian dissident Alexey Navalny's appeal against the 19-year prison sentence imposed on him over extremism charges.
The development is the latest crackdown on the outspoken Kremlin critic following his sentencing in August. At the time, he was found guilty of creating an extremist community, financing extremist activities, and numerous other crimes.
Alexey Navalny's Appeal Rejected
Navalny is already serving sentences of 11-and-a-half years in a maximum security facility over fraud and other charges he has continued denying. The dissident appeared at the hearing on Tuesday through a video link from a penal colony in the Vladimir region, east of Moscow.
Many of the locked-up dissident's supporters claim that his arrest and incarceration are a politically motivated attempt to stifle his criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin. On the other hand, Navalny's team said the hearing was moved behind closed doors after a letter from Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs described potential unspecified danger to the participants in an open trial, as per CNN.
In a statement on Tuesday, Navalny told the prosecutor that the main reason these processes are taking place behind closed doors is the restriction of my and Daniel Kholodny's rights. The former technical director of the dissident's YouTube channel was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment in August in the same extremism case.
Russian authorities have imprisoned Navalny since returning to the country in January 2021 on charges of violating terms of probation related to a historical fraud case. He dismissed the case as politically targeted.
The dissident was taken from Russia to Germany in August 2020 after being poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok. He then arrived in a coma at a Berlin hospital following a medical evacuation flight from the Siberian city of Omsk.
The 47-year-old is by far the most popular figure in Russia's splintered opposition, with his supporters casting him as a Nelson Mandela-style figure who will one day be freed from imprisonment to lead the nation, according to Aljazeera.
Extremism Charges
Navalny's political movement was outlawed, and key figures have been jailed or forced to flee abroad as part of a Kremlin crackdown on dissent. The efforts have intensified after President Putin sent his troops into Ukraine last year.
The Russian government has also sought to portray Navalny as politically irrelevant, and the Russian strongman never speaks the dissident's name. Moscow officials also portray him as an extremist and a puppet of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) but have not provided any evidence of the latter.
The latest case against Navalny threatens to transfer him to a "special regime" prison colony, the harshest grade in Russia's penal system. The length of the imprisonment he faces gives the prospect that he could stay there until he is in his mid-70s.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, Navalny aide Leonid Volkov said that the situation is a constant pain for them, their colleagues, and friends. He added that it is a constant challenge because they must do everything daily to destroy the "maniac in the Kremlin," said Inquirer.
