Jailed anti-Kremlin Navalny said: Could be life imprisonment

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has said he is facing new charges of extremism and terrorism that could lead to life in prison as authorities prepare for a new trial against him. During the hearing, Navalni told via video link from jail that the charges of extremism could land him in jail for 30 years. He said an investigator told him he would face a separate military court trial on terrorism charges and could face life in prison. His top aide said investigators were trying to link the terrorism charges against Navalny to a bombing.

Earlier this month, a well-known Russian military blogger was killed in this bomb attack. Navalny (46), who exposed government corruption and led massive anti-Kremlin protests, was arrested in January 2021 upon his return here from Germany. He was given a kind of poison and he was in Germany for the treatment of the same. It is alleged that the Kremlin was behind the poisoning. Navalny was initially sentenced to two and a half years in prison for violating parole.

Last year, he was sentenced to nine years in prison for forgery and contempt of court. He is currently being held in a high-security prison some 250 kilometers east of Moscow. The new charges against Navalny relate to the activities of his Anti-Corruption Foundation and statements from his top aides. His aide Leonid Volkov said that the activities of Navalny’s foundation, established in 2011, are retroactively classified as a crime and could be punished with up to 35 years in prison. Navalny’s aide Ivan Zhadnov said on Wednesday that investigators are reconsidering the allegations to link them to the bombings. Russian blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed in a bomb attack in St. Petersburg earlier this month.

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