A Russian judge who sent Alexei Navalny to prison died in suspicious circumstances shortly after saying he regretted imprisoning him, the opposition said.
Mr Navalny, who was nearly killed by Novice poisoning in 2020, made the allegation during an appeal hearing on Tuesday, just before a Moscow court ordered his release to a high-security prison. nine years.
During the rare public appearance, Mr. Navalny said that Judge Natalia Repnikova – who imprisoned him in February 2021 – has since conveyed a message through her friends that she “regrets her decision and her participation in it and that she believes she I’m brave man. “
“Shortly afterwards, she died of Covid,” Mr Navalny was quoted as saying by Russian media outlet.
“I do not want to speculate, but she did not impress me as a person from a high-risk group. So if some judges want to give me their word – and they will – please be careful not to see forensic scientists on your doorstep. “
The 45-year-old politician on Tuesday took the opportunity to condemn the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
“I am certainly ready to stay in prison so that I can tell everyone about people who are dying in Ukraine,” he told the court.
“You can destroy many lives, but you will be defeated here and in this stupid war you are waging.
Mr Navalny is Russia’s most popular opposition figure and led protests against Putin in the Kremlin for a decade before suddenly falling ill on a plane to Siberia in the summer of 2020. He spent more than two weeks in a coma for medical reasons. in Germany before recovering.
He was later proven to have been poisoned by a Soviet-era Novice military agent. He was jailed and sentenced to two and a half years in prison last February. This March, he received an additional nine years for fraud and contempt of court.
Before he was imprisoned, Mr Navalny published an ugly investigation that shed light on an Kremlin-organized operation to assassinate him. One of his future killers was heard in a telephone conversation admitting to smearing the nerve agent on his underwear.
Now Mr Navalny is likely to be more isolated than ever. While serving his previous sentence in a prison colony, on a short train ride from Moscow, his lawyers had the opportunity to visit him regularly and send him messages or accept dictation from him to post on social media.
Add Comment