Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny, currently serving his sentence in the Melekhovo penitentiary in the Vladimir region, said on Twitter that his lawyer had been prohibited from bringing documents to meetings with Navalny, while the politician himself — from “even listening to what is written in any documents”.
“And now they have taken away all the papers from my lawyer at the entrance to the colony, saying that from now on the administration of the colony will decide what is relevant to the criminal case and what is not, and therefore, what can be read out to me and what can't. So now my lawyer sits at our meeting with just a blank sheet of paper and a pen. And I, separated by the opaque glass in front of me, also only a blank piece of paper and a pen. What a great defence I've got. I guess we could discuss the weather, for example,” Navalny stated.
The politician added that the next time he might get escorted to a meeting with his lawyer with his “mouth taped shut”.