Jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny has been transferred from a prison hospital in the Correctional Colony No. 3 (IK-3) back to his court-mandated prison in the Vladimir region.
An official at the IK-3 penitentiary said on June 7 that the outspoken Kremlin critic had been returned to Correctional Colony No. 2 (IK-2) in the town of Pokrov.
Navalny was transferred to the correctional facility hospital at IK-3 in April while he was on a hunger strike to demand that independent physicians examine him for back pain and numb limbs.
Navalny ended his 24-day hunger strike on April 23 after civilian doctors were allowed to examine him.
As a court on June 7 started hearing Navalny's lawsuits against IK-2, the 45-year-old opposition politician said he decided to withdraw his lawsuits against the penitentiary administration accusing it of violating his rights by delivering newspapers to him with some articles cut out and by refusing him access to his books.
Navalny said at the hearing he decided to withdraw the lawsuits after he realized that the penitentiary had nothing to do with the clipped newspapers.
Navalny also said that eventually all of his books, including the Koran and Bible, were delivered to him and therefore the issue was resolved.
Navalny was arrested in January upon his arrival from Germany where he was treated after being poisoned in Siberia with what was defined by European labs as a Novichok nerve agent in August last year. He has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering the poisoning, which the Kremlin has denied.
A Moscow court in February converted a 3 1/2-year suspended sentence on a charge that Navalny and his supporters call politically motivated to real jail time, saying he broke the terms of the original sentence by leaving Russia for Germany for the life-saving treatment he received.
The court reduced the time Navalny must spend in prison to just over 2 1/2 years because of time already served in detention.
