WASHINGTON: America on Saturday (Dec 23) voiced deepening concern over the destiny of imprisoned Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny, who has not been heard from since early December.
“We’re deeply involved in regards to the whereabouts of Alexei Navalny, who has now been lacking in Russia’s jail system for almost three weeks,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated on X, the previous Twitter.
“We as soon as extra name for his rapid launch and an finish to the continued repression of impartial voices in Russia.”
On Monday, United Nations rights skilled Mariana Katzarova joined a refrain of voices expressing concern at Navalny’s “enforced disappearance”.
The dissident’s legal professionals say they’ve been unable to see or contact him since Dec 6.
On Dec 15, Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh stated a court docket consultant informed her that he had been moved from a jail close to Moscow to an undisclosed location.
The shortage of updates might imply that Navalny is being transferred to a harsher jail, following a court docket ruling earlier this yr.
The method can take weeks in Russia, the place prisoners are slowly moved by rail between far-flung amenities.
Navalny’s crew has stated his attainable switch to a different jail has been purposefully timed because the Kremlin gears up for President Vladimir Putin’s anticipated re-election in March.
Navalny, 47, Putin’s most important political opponent, was barred from working in elections in 2018 as a result of an outdated fraud cost that his allies stated was politically motivated.
He acquired a 19-year jail sentence in 2021 on costs of “extremism” after surviving a poisoning try on his life, for which he blamed Putin.