The court upheld the 9-year sentence of the ex-coordinator of Navalny’s headquarters
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The Altai Regional Court upheld the sentence of Vadym Ostanin, the former coordinator of Navalny’s headquarters in Barnaul. In July, he was sentenced to nine years in prison on the charge of “participation in an extremist community.” The Russian authorities consider Navalny’s now defunct headquarters and the Anti-Corruption Fund founded by him to be such a community. Ostanin’s defense filed an appeal, but the court did not satisfy it.
46-year-old Vadym Ostanin was detained in December 2021 on criminal charges related to an extremist community and the creation of a non-profit organization that encroaches on the personality and rights of citizens. Both cases are related to the Anti-Corruption Fund.
In a letter written from the prison to the appeals court, Ostanin called the indictment “an absurdity that has nothing to do with the law.”
Ostanin’s sentence is one of the harshest sentences handed down in Russia to Navalny’s associates. The human rights organization “Memorial” recognized the Barnaul oppositionist as a political prisoner.
- After the arrest of Navalny and the designation of FBK as an extremist organization, the persecution of supporters of the opposition leader and employees of his regional headquarters, which were already mass in nature, intensified. Many of them left Russia.
- Alexey Navalny himself is now in the colony. In a new criminal case, including accusations of creating an extremist community, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison in addition to the previous term.
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