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Opposition leader Alexei Navalny - here during the first trial over a year ago
Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko / dpa
Alexej Navalny must be imprisoned for another nine years.
A court in a penal colony east of Moscow convicted the 45-year-old opposition figure after finding him guilty of embezzlement and contempt of court at a previous trial.
Now the jailed Kremlin critic has vowed to continue his political struggle against the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Putin is afraid of the truth, I've always said that," Navalny said on Instagram after the verdict.
"The fight against censorship and bringing the truth to the people of Russia remains our priority."
Navalny's wife also commented on Instagram.
"We have been together for more than 20 years, and year after year we learn how to be good parents and good spouses," wrote Yulia Navalnaya.
»And if we have to withstand constant pressure, then we will also master this task.«
In addition, Navalnaja posted a photo showing her, Alexei and their two children, Darja and Sachar.
"I love you, my most expensive person in this world," the 45-year-old ended her contribution.
"And I've been proud of you for many, many years."
Navalny is already serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence for fraud in the penal colony in Pokrov, which he was sentenced to a year ago.
In the new trial for embezzlement and contempt of court, the public prosecutor had demanded a total of 13 years in prison for Navalny.
Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International condemned the trial as a farce.
“We knew from the start that it was purely a show trial.
Now we have further, clear and reliable evidence of this," Nikolaos Gazeas, Alexej Navalny's German lawyer, told SPIEGEL.
"What is happening in this arbitrary state is downright grotesque."
Shortly after the sentence was announced, defenders Olga Mikhailova and Vadim Kobsev were arrested in front of the penal colony while talking to journalists.
The newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which is critical of the Kremlin, published a video showing Mikhailova being led away by two police officers – accompanied by cameras.
According to the Interfax agency, an officer had previously called for her to be taken off the premises for "disrupting the work of the correctional facility".
According to Interfax, the two lawyers were released a little later.
Navalny barely survived an assassination attempt with the chemical warfare agent Novichok in August 2020.
President Putin rejected participation.
The EU had imposed sanctions on Russia for the attack.
Navalny returned to Russia more than a year ago after recovering in Germany, where then Chancellor Angela Merkel had visited him at the Charité in Berlin.
He was arrested on January 17, 2021 at Moscow Airport for allegedly violating conditions in another criminal case.
mrc/dpa/AFP
