MELEKHOVO /Vladimir Region/, August 4. /TASS/. The Moscow City Court has sentenced Alexey Navalny to 19 years in a maximum security prison on charges of establishing an extremist community, a TASS correspondent reported on Friday from the court field session at penal colony No.6 in the Vladimir Region.
"To sentence Alexey Navalny to 19 years in a maximum security penal colony," Judge Andrey Suvorov read out the verdict.
Navalny was charged with setting up an extremist community and participating in it (part 3, article 282.1 of the Russian Criminal Code), as well as with financing extremist activities, public calls for extremist activities and involving minors in dangerous activities. The prosecution was asking for 20 years for Navalny.
Maximum security prisons are intended for housing especially dangerous repeat offenders and those with life sentences. Such prisons have tougher incarceration conditions, restricting movement and communication.
Also charged in the case is Daniel Kholodny, the former technical director for Navalny’s YouTube channel. He is accused of financing extremist activities and participating in an extremist community. His verdict has not yet been pronounced.
The case was heard by the Moscow City Court but its sessions were held in the village of Melikhovo in the Vladimir Region, where Navalny is serving a sentence on other charges. The trial was held behind closed doors out of fear of provocative actions and because there were secret witnesses.
According to the TASS correspondent, one of the defense witnesses was former Moscow municipal lawmaker Ilya Yashin (recognized as a foreign agent), who is serving a prison term on charges of disseminating false information about the Russian army. He was questioned via video link.
Charges of organizing an extremist community were brought against Navalny, Leonid Volkov, and Ivan Zhdanov (both recognized as foreign agents). Lyubov Sobol, Georgy Alburov (foreign agents both) and others were charged with participating in an extremist community. Most of the defendants are outside Russia.
According to the Russian Investigative Committee, in 2014 or earlier, Navalny set up the FBK organization (recognized as extremist and outlawed in Russia) and directed it to carry out extremist activities aimed at changing the Russian constitutional system, undermining public security and state integrity. During this period, Zhdanov and Volkov joined Navalny's criminal activities. In order to ensure the activities of this community, including its financing, as well as to create conditions for committing extremist crimes, and involve new participants, the organizers established eight non-profit organizations (foundations), as well as commercial organizations, which were FBK subdivisions, the Investigative Committee said.
Along with extremism, Navalny is charged with terrorism. According to his attorney Vadim Kobzev, these charges were linked with calls for terrorism and rehabilitation of Nazism.
Navalny, who received suspended sentences for embezzlement twice, was wanted in Russia for repeated violations of conditions of his conviction in the Yves Rocher case. On January 17, 2021, he was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport upon arrival from Berlin, where he had undergone medical treatment. On February 2, 2021, Moscow’s court replaced Navalny’s three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence with real jail time due to multiple probation violations.
On May 24, the Moscow City Court upheld the Moscow Lefortovo District Court’s verdict sentencing Navalny to nine years in a high-security penal colony for contempt of court and fraud during campaign money-raising. The court also sentenced him to 20 months in prison after the colony and a fine of 1.2 million rubles (roughly $12,500).