© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny is seen on a display by way of video hyperlink from a penal colony within the Vladimir Area throughout a listening to on the Basmanny district courtroom in Moscow, Russia April 26, 2023. REUTERS/Yulia Morozova/File Photograph
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Allies of jailed Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny mentioned on Friday that it was nonetheless unclear the place he was after jail authorities mentioned he was not within the penal colony the place he had been serving his sentence.
Navalny, a former lawyer who rose to prominence by lampooning President Vladimir Putin’s elite and alleging huge corruption, was sentenced in August to an extra 19 years in jail on high of 11-1/2 years he was already serving.
Allies mentioned earlier this week that his whereabouts within the jail system was unknown. They’d been getting ready for his anticipated switch to a “special regime” colony, the harshest grade in Russia’s jail system.
A Navalny lawyer, Vyacheslav Gimadi, mentioned that it had been 10 days since allies misplaced monitor of the place he was. Gimadi mentioned jail officers advised a courtroom on Friday that Navalny had left the IK-6 facility in Melekhovo, 235 km (145 miles) east of Moscow.
“Where exactly he was taken and where he is now, the prison service officials did not say,” Gimadi mentioned.
Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, mentioned Navalny’s lawyer had been advised that he had been taken out of the Vladimir area the place IK-6 is.
“Where he was taken is not known,” Yarmysh mentioned.
“Let me remind you that the lawyers have not seen Alexei since December 6. Why there were not allowed to meet with him, if Alexei was still in IK-6, we do not know.”
Navalny earned admiration from Russia’s disparate opposition for voluntarily returning to Russia in 2021 from Germany, the place he had been handled for what Western laboratory checks confirmed was an try to poison him with a nerve agent in Siberia.
Navalny says he was poisoned in Siberia in August 2020. The Kremlin denied making an attempt to kill him and mentioned there was no proof he was poisoned with a nerve agent.
His supporters forged him as a Russian model of South Africa’s Nelson Mandela who will someday stroll free from jail to guide his nation.
However Russian authorities view him and his supporters as extremists with hyperlinks to the CIA intelligence company who’re looking for to destabilise Russia. They’ve outlawed his motion, forcing a lot of his followers to flee overseas.
