Russian Supreme Court hearing on Navalny’s right to correspond from prison. Photo: EPA-EFE/SERGEI ILNITSKY
The mystery of jailed Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny’s whereabouts continued on Friday, as a court in the central Russian city of Vladimir confirmed that Navalny had “left for a correctional facility outside the Vladimir region”, Telegram channel SOTAvision reported.
“Alexey Navalny has left the penal colony in the Vladimir region for a correctional facility outside the region, in accordance with the Moscow City Court verdict of 4 August,” the judge said.
Navalny’s whereabouts have not been known to his team for 10 days now. Telegram channel Baza had previously suggested that Navalny could have been transferred to Moscow to face questioning on recently pressed vandalism charges, but Navalny’s associates have said that he is not currently in any of Moscow’s pre-trial detention centres.
Navalny, who was initially sentenced to 2.5 years in jail for parole violations in 2021, was subsequently given another nine years on charges of fraud and embezzlement in 2022, and then a further 19 years on “extremism” charges in August.
