Russian opposition defends complaints against the prison administration

On Wednesday, a Russian court is hearing three complaints from the imprisoned opponent Alexey Navalny Against the prison administration, during a hearing in which he participated via video, and appeared in good condition a month after the end of his hunger strike. Imprisoned in January on his return
from Germany As he was recovering from poisoning the Kremlin accused, the opponent and anti-corruption activist was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in a fraud case in 2014 and everyone denounced it.

Alexei Navalny, 44, has been serving his term since his sentence on Vladimir, About a hundred kilometers from Moscow, where he witnessed a 24-day hunger strike in April to denounce his detention conditions in a penal institution known to be one of the harshest in Russia. The complaints examined on Wednesday relate to the refusal of the prison administration of this colony to hand him over books sent by his relatives, in particular. The Quran Who says he wants to study, about the censorship of the newspapers he receives, as well as about his being on the list of people who tend to flee.

“It’s a strange situation”

“It’s a strange situation,” Alexei Navalny, wearing a dark jacket, smiling but his face emaciated, denounced during a videoconference before a court in Toshka, in the Vladimir region. He insisted, “I would like to have the books that were sent to me.” Seated with curved shoulders, he has targeted the opponent in recent years by several criminal investigations and accustomed to the hearings, and did not take a combat stance this time, and speaks in a calm manner. Alexei Navalny said he was unable to receive The Quran Only after he was transferred to the prison hospital in April for his hunger strike and where he is still being held.

The opponent also complained that many of the press articles he had received at his former place of detention were “cut with scissors.” I am not against reading my messages. Why are newspaper articles cut off? The opponent also complains about being placed on the list of people who tend to flee, after he had already accused in April the jailers of the penal colony in which he was held before entering the hospital by waking him several times a night under this pretext, which is the treatment he prescribed. Torture of sleep deprivation. “

“There is no objective data confirming that I am planning to escape. It is a ridiculous decision.” Since his arrest, the authorities began to dismantle his movement, which many of its cadres fled abroad. Justice is currently studying a request from the Attorney General’s office to classify its organizations as “extremist”, while the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, on Wednesday in its third reading, adopted a law preventing members of eligible groups from electing representatives. . And thus to participate in the legislative elections in September.