Jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny says he will be transferred to a notorious prison, where inmates are reported to have been tortured, once his latest custodial sentence takes effect.
Navalny, who was sentenced to nine years in prison in March while he was already serving another prison term from a separate case, wrote on Telegram on May 4 that he was informed by inmates from Correctional Colony No 6 in the town of Melekhovo that the penitentiary’s authorities are preparing for his transfer to the facility.
"My sentence has not come into force yet, but inmates from the maximum-security prison in Melekhovo have written to me that 'a prison inside a prison' is being prepared for me there. If you Google the term Melekhovo, you will see inmates' stories about how their nails were torn off," Navalny wrote, referring to the allegations of torture at the institution.
Prison authorities have not commented on the issue.
Navalny was arrested in January last year upon his arrival in Moscow from Germany, where he had been treated for a poison attack with what European labs defined as a Soviet-style nerve agent. He was handed a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for violating the terms of an earlier parole because of his convalescence abroad. The conviction is widely regarded as a trumped-up, politically motivated case.
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5 Things To Know About Russian Opposition Leader Aleksei Navalny
Navalny has blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his poisoning with a Novichok-style chemical substance. The Kremlin has denied any role in the attack.
A court handed down a new sentence against Navalny -- nine years in prison -- on March 22 after finding him guilty of embezzlement and contempt charges, which Navalny and his supporters also rejected as politically motivated. That sentence is expected to fully come into force after an upper court upholds it upon appeal.
In March last year, the Mediazona website cited a former inmate of the prison in Melekhovo, Ivan Fomin, who described how inmates were tortured and sexually abused in the penitentiary.
International organizations consider Navalny to be a political prisoner. The European Union, U.S. President Joe Biden, and other international officials have demanded that Russian authorities release the 45-year-old Kremlin-critic.
Navalny is currently serving his term in a prison in the town of Pokrov, some 200 kilometers east of Moscow.