Russian prosecutors demand 20 years of ‘maximum-security prison’

The Russian state prosecutor on Thursday demanded 20 years of prison sentence in a ‘penal colony’ for Kremlin critic and jailed blogger Alexei Navalny on a number of charges including creating an “extremist community”, TASS reported on Thursday.

Navalny’s lawyer Olga Mikhailova said that the prosecutor has demanded that Navalny should serve his sentence in a maximum-security prison.

"The prosecutor demanded that Navalny be found guilty under Part 3 of Article 282.1 of the Russian Criminal Code ("Creation of an extremist community and participation in it"), as well as for financing extremist activities, public calls for extremist activities, and demanded that he be sentenced to 20 years in prison, serving out his sentence in a maximum-security prison," TASS quoted the lawyer as saying.

The state prosecutor on Thursday demanded that blogger Alexey Navalny be sentenced to 20 years in a penal colony in the case of creating an extremist community, his lawyer Olga Mikhailova told TASS.

The second defendant in the case is the former technical director of Navalny's YouTube channel, Daniil Kholodny.

The prosecutor demanded that he be found guilty of creating an “extremist community” and organizing the activities of an “extremist organization”, and that he be sentenced to 10 years in a maximum-security prison, TASS reported.

Notably, the trial is being held in a prison in the Vladimir Region, where Navalny is serving a sentence in another case. It is taking place behind closed doors for fear of reprisals against the participants in the trial.

A criminal case was opened against Navalny, Leonid Volkov (recognized as a foreign agent in Russia), and Ivan Zhdanov (recognized as a foreign agent in Russia) for organizing an extremist community, TASS reported.

Lyubov Sobol (recognized as a foreign agent in Russia), Georgy Alburov (recognized as a foreign agent in Russia) and others are accused of participating in an extremist community. Most of the defendants in the case now live outside Russia.

“According to the Investigative Committee (IC), in 2014 or later, Navalny, as the founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (an organization recognized as extremist and liquidated in Russia), created an extremist community and directed it to carry out extremist activities aimed at changing the foundations of the Russian constitutional order, undermining public security and state integrity. During this period, Zhdanov and Volkov participated in Navalny's criminal activities. The IC pointed out that in order to ensure the activities of the extremist community, including its financing, as well as to create conditions for the commission of extremist crimes, and involve new participants, the organizers established eight non-profit organizations, as well as commercial organizations, which were subdivisions of the community,” TASS reported.

Meanwhile, during Thursday’s closed-door court hearing, Navalny condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine, Al Jazeera reported citing a statement released by Navalny’s aides.

“[Russia is] floundering in a pool of either mud or blood, with broken bones, with a poor and robbed population, and around it lie tens of thousands of people killed in the most stupid and senseless war of the 21st century,” he said.

Navalny is already serving an 11.5-year prison sentence over fraud and other charges, in a maximum security penal colony in Melekhovo, 250 kilometres (150 miles) east of Moscow, Al Jazeera reported.