Navalny to stand trial in prison, not in Moscow court

Alexey Navalny’s trial for “extremism” will take place not in a court in Moscow, but in the penal colony in the Vladimir region where the politician is currently serving his sentence. Navalny spokesperson Kira Yarmysh posted the news on Twitter. 

“Allegedly, the judge made this decision. I can see how the judge decided ‘himself’ to move the proceedings from his spacious, air-conditioned Moscow office (where he, the prosecutors, and the lawyers live) to an assembly hall for amateur prison theater in a village in the Vladimir region,” she wrote.

It was reported earlier that a hearing for the case had been pushed back from May 31 to June 6. 

The new criminal case against Navalny involves charges on six counts: calls to extremism, financing extremism, creation of an extremist group, the involvement of minors in dangerous actions, the rehabilitation of nazism, and the creation of an NGO that infringes on the rights of citizens. As Yarmysh has reported, the politician could face up to 30 years in prison.