Russian opposition politician Oleksiy Navalny, who is serving his term in a colony in the Volodymyr region, will be charged with another criminal case under the article on the disorganization of the colony's activities. The reason may be his reaction to provocation by the colony's employees. This was reported by Navalny's lawyer, Vadym Kobzev.
According to Kobzev, a neighbor who has problems with hygiene was once again moved in with Navalny at the SHIZO.
"The smell in the cell was such that it was impossible to enter there. Navalny refused to enter the camera," the lawyer writes, noting that everything that happened was recorded on the video recorder.
Navalny warned that if he is forced to enter the cell, he will use force against his cellmate "according to prison rules." Colony officials first threatened the policy, then called in a "bulletproof and helmeted response team" and dragged him into a cell. At the same time, Navalny was hit with a knee in the groin, although he did not resist, Kobzev writes.
In the cell, Navalny allegedly grabbed a cellmate by the collar and dragged him to the exit. In response, the reaction group pinned the politician against the wall, and the colony authorities announced that they would now initiate criminal proceedings against him under the article on the disorganization of the colony's activities. The article provides up to five years of imprisonment. Officially, the initiation of the case was not reported.
A week ago, on April 11, Navalny was sent to the pre-trial detention center for the 13th time. The reasons were not given. Before that, the reasons for transferring a politician to a detention center were, among others, an unbuttoned button and refusal to wash the fence.
The penitentiary is characterized by particularly harsh conditions of detention. Navalny described it as a two-by-three-meter cell where he has to sit on an iron stool. Since August 2022, he spent more than a hundred days in such a cell, which led to a sharp deterioration in his health.
According to Kobzev, at the beginning of April, Navalny was called to an ambulance because of a stomach ailment that had worsened. The defender noted that Navalny's diagnosis is still unknown. Kobzev said that he will demand toxicological and radiological tests, as his client may be given poisonous substances in small doses.
In June 2022, Navalny was transferred from the general regime colony in Pokrov to the strict regime colony in Melekhov. Navalny and his supporters consider the criminal prosecution to be political.
