Navalny at ‘standard penal colony’

MOSCOW: Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has been moved to an undisclosed detention centre outside Moscow that may be a prison camp, his lawyer and a rights organisation said yesterday.

Navalny, a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, was jailed this month over alleged parole violations related to an embezzlement case he said was trumped up for political reasons, something the authorities deny.

He is due to spend a little over two and ahalf years behind bars, his lawyers say, one of whom, Vadim Kobzev, said on Twitter Navalny had been moved from his Moscow jail. He later said Navalny could have been taken to a prison camp.

Kobzev said such a move was against the law, and Navalny’s relatives had not been informed of his whereabouts.

Eva Merkacheva, a member of Moscow’s public monitoring committee for human rights, said Navalny was sent to a standard penal colony, RIA news agency reported. — Reuters