Current:Home > ContactJailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny braces for verdict in latest trial -Ascend Finance Compass
Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny braces for verdict in latest trial
View
Date:2025-04-14 08:04:19
LONDON -- Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponent could be sentenced Friday to an additional two decades behind bars on extremism charges.
A Russian judge is set to deliver a verdict in the closed-door trial against Alexey Navalny at a courtroom inside the maximum-security prison camp in Melekhovo, about 145 miles east of Moscow, where the Russian opposition leader is already serving 11 1/2 years. Russian prosecutors have requested a 20-year prison sentence for the latest charges, which stem from Navalny's pro-democracy campaigns against Putin's regime.
If the judge finds Navalny guilty, it will be his fifth criminal conviction. All of the charges have been widely viewed as a politically motivated strategy by the Kremlin to silence its fiercest critic.
MORE: Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny's health deteriorating, ambulance called last week: Spokesperson
The 47-year-old lawyer-turned-politician has been in jail since 2021, upon returning to Russia after recovering in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. In 2022, a Russian judge added another nine years to Navalny's sentence of 2 1/2 years on embezzlement and other charges.
Earlier this year, Navalny's team sounded the alarm over his deteriorating health while in solitary confinement, saying he has not received any treatment. They said he has been repeatedly put in solitary confinement for two-week stints for months.
MORE: Prominent Putin critic Alexey Navalny sentenced to additional 9 years
On the eve of Friday's verdict, Navalny said in a social media statement from behind bars that he expects a "Stalinist" sentence of about 18 years.
"When the figure is announced, please show solidarity with me and other political prisoners by thinking for a minute why such an exemplary huge term is necessary," Navalny wrote in the social media post on Thursday. "Its main purpose is to intimidate. You, not me. I'll even say this: you personally, who are reading these words."
In closing statements during his last hearing on July 20, Navalny condemned Russia's ongoing war in neighboring Ukraine.
"[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.
veryGood! (2)
Related
- Juan Soto to be introduced by Mets at Citi Field after striking record $765 million, 15
- Elon Musk says 'I've hired a new CEO' for Twitter
- In Africa, Conflict and Climate Super-Charge the Forces Behind Famine and Food Insecurity
- In Nevada’s Senate Race, Energy Policy Is a Stark Divide Between Cortez Masto and Laxalt
- Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker arrested and accused of making terroristic threats
- California Passed a Landmark Law About Plastic Pollution. Why Are Some Environmentalists Still Concerned?
- How Is the Jet Stream Connected to Simultaneous Heat Waves Across the Globe?
- Sinkholes Attributed to Gas Drilling Underline the Stakes in Pennsylvania’s Governor’s Race
- EU countries double down on a halt to Syrian asylum claims but will not yet send people back
- Great Scott! 30 Secrets About Back to the Future Revealed
Ranking
- The Grammy nominee you need to hear: Esperanza Spalding
- The racial work gap for financial advisors
- In the Race for Pennsylvania’s Open U.S. Senate Seat, Candidates from Both Parties Support Fracking and Hardly Mention Climate Change
- College Acceptance: Check. Paying For It: A Big Question Mark.
- Meta releases AI model to enhance Metaverse experience
- An African American Community in Florida Blocked Two Proposed Solar Farms. Then the Florida Legislature Stepped In.
- The weight bias against women in the workforce is real — and it's only getting worse
- The economics of the influencer industry, and its pitfalls
Recommendation
Rams vs. 49ers highlights: LA wins rainy defensive struggle in key divisional game
As some families learn the hard way, dementia can take a toll on financial health
Your Mission: Enjoy These 61 Facts About Tom Cruise
California Water Regulators Still Haven’t Considered the Growing Body of Research on the Risks of Oil Field Wastewater
NFL Week 15 picks straight up and against spread: Bills, Lions put No. 1 seed hopes on line
Sinkholes Attributed to Gas Drilling Underline the Stakes in Pennsylvania’s Governor’s Race
Fifty Years After the UN’s Stockholm Environment Conference, Leaders Struggle to Realize its Vision of ‘a Healthy Planet’
How to fight a squatting goat