Russian opponent Alexei Navalny was suddenly transferred from penal colony No. 2 in Pokrov, 120 km from Moscow, where he had been imprisoned since March 2021, to a high security penal center located even further from the Russian capital. .
Having become the main opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin for a dozen years, Alexei Navalny was sentenced in February 2021 to two and a half years in prison for violation of his judicial control after a previous conviction for embezzlement, an accusation that he rejects.
The lawyer and anti-corruption activist was then sentenced on March 24 to an additional nine years in prison for fraud and contempt of court.
Alexeï Navalny, who denounces fabricated accusations, had pleaded not guilty. The court also ordered that he be transferred to a high security prisonwhere his visitation rights and his correspondence would be further restricted.
#Russia Alexei Navalny disappeared today from the prison where he was being held.
His lawyer was unable to meet him and the administration of the regime gave no indication of his new place of detention.
The radicalization of Putin’s dictatorship raises fears of the worst. https://t.co/IYbQ9BSyqM— cedric mas (@CedricMas) June 14, 2022
Leonid Volkov, right-hand man of Alexei Navalny, said that the latter’s lawyer had been informed during the day, during a visit to penal colony No. 2 in Pokrov, the “worst camp” in all of Russia , that no prisoner by the name of Navalny was there.
“We do not know where Alexei is now, or to which colony he was taken,” said the chief of staff of Alexei Navalny via Telegram messaging.
A monstrous place
Subsequently, the director of an NGO protecting the rights of prisoners and observing the regional penitentiary system reported that Alexei Navalny had been transferred to the penal colony IK-6 from Melekhovoat about 250 kilometers east of Moscow. No comment could be immediately obtained from the prison services.
This establishment of high security is known for its systemic abuse on detainees recalls the Washington Post. “The abuse and the torture are used against inmates in many Russian prisons, but IK-6 in Melekhovo is a monstrous place even by such insane standards,” Navalny’s spokeswoman said, Kira Yarmyshlast May.
Rape, humiliation, beating
As mentioned by the Washington Post, several survivors of the camp were able today to testify to the horror that is played out between these walls. “They pushed me into the office. There were six masked people: five were in uniform, the sixth was in a bathrobe. They threw me on mattresses, tied my legs and arms, took off my pants and sat on their backs,” prisoner Artem Gribanov said last year. describing how he had been raped.
Jobir Zhuraev, another IK-6 detainee, said in another recording that he was systematically drugged, beaten and humiliated. “There is no law there,” Yarmysh said. “And that’s where Putin wants to put Navalny to not be afraid of him and tell the truth.”
Two weeks ago, Alexei Navalny announced that he was the subject of a new charge for forming an extremist organization and inciting hatred towards the authorities, which could earn him fifteen years in prison.
