Alexey Navalny’s family has filed a class action suit against his prison as they are not allowed to visit him, the politician revealed on his social media.
Navalny says his relatives are “determined to go all the way to the Constitutional Court”.
“I am a convict, and they keep reminding me that I am ‘just like everyone else’. And yet, I have had 0 (zero) visits over the past year. 0 (zero) long visits, 0 (zero) short visits, and 2 (two) phone calls 11 months ago,” the politician revealed.
Alexey Navalny with his family. Photo: Navvalny on social media
In his maximum security prison, his family is supposed to be legally allowed to attend three long visits and three short visits annually, as well as at least six phone calls.
“Let’s take a maniac as an example. A serial killer. He ends up in a maximum-security colony for those serving a life sentence. He will spend the first 10 years there under ‘strict conditions’. But even there this maniac will get one long visit and two short visits a year. And I get none. Besides, there is an iron law: those arriving at the colony after receiving their sentence are always allowed one visit. However, I was exempt even from this iron law. With the help of all kinds of tricks, pettifoggery and ‘disciplinary penalties’, the prison officials invented a special regime for me, which simply prohibits everything,” Navalny wrote.
He stressed that
the Constitution guarantees that his children are entitled to see him every now and then as he is obliged to participate in their upbringing.
“The Constitution also guarantees the rights of my elderly parents: I have an obligation to take care of them as best I can, which implies that I have a right to communicate with them. And yet, they were not even allowed into the courtroom on the first ‘open’ day of my trial. Meanwhile, this hypocritical system proclaims that communicating with relatives and maintaining social ties is one of the signs of a convict’s correction. In theory, this should be encouraged in every way possible,” the politician noted, stressing that this issue is a matter of principle for him.
A new trial against Navalny started in his prison in June. He is accused of “extremism” and is facing 30 more years in prison on six charges, including “setting up an extremist community” and “justifying nazism”. Daniel Kholodny, the technical director of the Navalny LIVE YouTube channel, will be tried alongside his former boss. Kholony has been in a pretrial jail for over a year.
The judge proclaimed that the trial would be held behind closed doors due to “information from one of the prison personnel that provocations involving physical violence might be used”.
