The trial of jailed Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny has started inside a penal colony on new charges of embezzlement -- which he calls politically motivated -- that could see as many as 10 more years tacked on to his prison time.
Moscow's Lefortovo district court started the trial on February 15 inside Correctional Colony No. 2 in the town of Pokrov, some 200 kilometers east of Moscow in the Vladimir region, where the anti-corruption campaigner has spent the last year on a different charge after returning from abroad where he was recovering from a near-fatal poison attack that he blames on the Kremlin.
The new case against Navalny, launched in December 2020, alleges that the 45-year-old lawyer embezzled money from his now defunct and banned Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and for contempt of a Moscow court.
Initially, investigators said Navalny was accused of taking more than $4.7 million in donations that were given to his organizations and using them for his own personal use.
However, on February 14, Navalny associate Leonid Volkov said that after obtaining case materials the allegedly "embezzled" sum is now shown as $33,770
The charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, while Navalny also faces up to six months in prison for a contempt of court charge stemming from one of his hearings last year.
Navalny has rejected all of the charges, calling them politically motivated.
Yulia Navalnaya was allowed to enter the penal colony's territory to attend her husband's trial a day after she demanded access and accused authorities of holding an "illegal and shameful" court proceeding.
Within weeks of returning from his convalescence in Germany in January 2021, Navalny was handed a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for violating the terms of an earlier parole. His conviction is widely regarded as the result of a trumped-up, politically motivated case.
The Kremlin has denied any role in the poisoning, which along with his arrest sparked widespread condemnation and sanctions from the West.
