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Navalny’s solitary confinement extended – new trial begins without the press

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was immediately transferred to a solitary cell again after the end of his 15-day solitary confinement. Navalny’s confidants said on his Telegram channel that the iron prison principle, which applied even in Soviet times, had been broken for him, whereby a prisoner was given at least one day’s rest after 15 days of solitary confinement. At the same time, it became known that the first session of a new criminal trial against the 46-year-old will take place on Wednesday in Moscow behind closed doors.

For Navalny it is the 14th solitary confinement since last summer. The conditions in the cramped isolation cell are particularly harsh. Prisoners cannot buy additional food there or be visited by relatives. Navalny recently reported that his time for writing letters had been reduced and that his daily walk in the prison courtyard had been postponed to the morning so that he did not see the sun there.

In a new criminal case, Navalny is to answer for extremism. The politician spoke of an “absurd charge”. He is accused of preparing terrorist attacks in prison. “I’m facing 30 years in this case and then apparently life in the next one,” he said via video link on Wednesday at a first technical session where the court will decide how much time the defendant will be given to acquaint himself with the allegations.


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