Jailed opposition politician Alexey Navalny reportedly facing new charges over incident staged by prison guards

Alexey Navalny’s lawyer, Vadim Kobzev, said Tuesday that prison authorities plan to open another felony case against the politician in response to an incident in which they tried to provoke him into using violence against a fellow prisoner.

According to Kobzev, prison employees put an inmate with “poor hygiene” in Navalny’s cell, causing it to smell so bad that it was “impossible to enter.” When Navalny refused to go in, Kobzev said, the guards called a “response team in bulletproof vests and helmets,” who proceeded to “drag” Navalny into the cell.

Kobzev emphasized that while Navalny did not physically resist the guards, they used violence against him, including by kneeing him in the groin.

Once Navalny was in the cell, he took the other inmate by the scruff of the neck and “dragged him to the exit,” but did not apply violence, despite “prison rules” dictating that he should. After that, Navalny was “pinned to the wall” by the response team.

After that, according to Kobzev, prison authorities told Navalny that they plan to open a new felony case against him for disorderly conduct.

Navalny’s press secretary, ​​Kira Yarmysh, noted that this will be the 10th criminal case against the politician, who is already facing up to 35 years in prison.