Moscow, April 26 (AFP): Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said Wednesday he could face life in prison on “terrorism” charges while another popular opposition politician went on trial in Russia’s escalating clampdown on dissent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Authorities are taking the crackdown on freedoms in Russia to an unprecedented new level over a year into Moscow’s assault on Ukraine, with independent media shut down and most key opposition figures behind bars or in exile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Navalny’s team says authorities are preparing a major new trial against the star enemy of Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“They have brought absurd charges against me, according to which I am facing up to 35 years,” said Navalny, who wore his prison uniform and appeared gaunt but defiant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Navalny, 46, said that within the framework of the new extremism case he was told he would be separately judged by a military tribunal over “terrorism” charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said he could face life in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last October, Navalny said that investigators had launched a new criminal case against him on allegations of “extremism” and “terrorism” and “rehabilitating the Nazi ideology”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The court gave Navalny until May 5 to read the 196 tomes of materials comprising the extremism case, his team said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said a new major trial against the opposition politician was expected to begin “before the end of May.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then he is expected to stand a separate trial on “terrorism” charges, Yarmysh said on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She called the appearance of the new case while Navalny was behind bars “mindboggling”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Navalny, who used to mobilise massive protests against the Kremlin, is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence on embezzlement and other charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He shot to global prominence after he barely survived a poisoning with Novichok, a Soviet-designed nerve agent, which the opposition politician blames on the Kremlin. He was arrested in January 2021 upon returning from Germany after recovering from the poisoning attack.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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