The Government of the United States has demanded this Friday from Russia the “immediate” release of the Russian opponent Alexei Navalni, while assuring that the prison authorities have interfered in the preparation of his defense of his case for alleged fraud and contempt.
“The United States is deeply concerned about the Russian government’s increasing and arbitrary interference with the rights of Alexei Navalny,” the US State Department said in a statement.
According to the Biden Administration, the Russian government would have prevented Navalni and his lawyers from being able to communicate freely, since it would have supervised their meetings and would have carried out delays in the exchange of documents between the opponent and his legal team.
Such interference, “along with his repeated solitary confinement for allegedly minor infractions, are further evidence of politically motivated harassment,” according to the State Department.
“His arrest upon his return to Russia was already shameful, but the Kremlin’s insistence on harassing him further only highlights his insecurity and his fear of those who tell the truth,” he said in the letter.
In mid-August, Navalni called from his cell for the West to carry out tougher sanctions on the Russian oligarchs.
Considered a political prisoner, the Kremlin opponent is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence for alleged fraud and contempt, and another two-and-a-half year sentence, also for alleged fraud.
Navalni survived a poisoning attempt on a domestic flight in Siberia in August 2020, after which he was airlifted to Germany for months of medical treatment before voluntarily returning to Russia, where he was immediately detained for breaching conditions. his parole.
Source: Europa Press
