Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny faces a new trial

Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent critic, made international headlines in 2020 after being poisoned with a Soviet-era chemical weapon and slipping into a coma. Since his recovery, he and his case have gone through various ups and downs. From returning to Russia to being imprisoned to going on a hunger strike for better medical treatment, his organisation has been labelled as “extremist.”

A fresh trial for jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny began on Tuesday inside the penal colony outside Moscow, where he is being kept, in a case that may see his sentence increased by more than a decade.

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According to an AFP journalist, a video clip showed Navalny in a jail uniform at the session. The opposition leader, who has been imprisoned for a year after surviving a poison assault blamed on the Kremlin, is facing new fraud allegations. Navalny is now serving a two-and-a-half-year term, but the additional accusations may drastically lengthen his time in prison.

The hearing of Moscow‘s Lefortovsky district court is taking place within the highest security jail where he is being kept in Pokrov, around 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Moscow.

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The video clip showed his wife Yuliya Navalnaya inside the courtroom where the trial was being held, a day after she had requested access to the proceedings.

Amnesty International condemned it as a “fake trial attended by prison guards rather than the media.”

The latest fraud complaint against Navalny was filed in December 2020, while the 45-year-old was recovering in Germany after nearly surviving a nerve agent poisoning.

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Navalny is accused by investigators of stealing more than $4.7 million in funds provided to his political organisations for personal use. The charges carry a potential jail sentence of ten years.

The trial begins as discussions between Russia and the West over Ukraine heat up, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the latest Western leader, to visit Moscow for talks with Putin.