A Russian court has found the country’s most prominent opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, guilty of fraud charges which his supporters have rejected as fabricated.
The BBC reports that the trial was held at the penal colony in Pokrov where Navalny was sent last year after being jailed (for three and a half years) for failing to observe bail conditions, while he was being given life-saving treatment in Berlin for an August 2020 nerve-agent attack.
At the time, Navalny blamed his poisoning on the Kremlin.
Prosecutors, who accuse Navalny of stealing $4.7m of donations given to his now banned political organisations, want him to serve another 13 years for what they claim is fraud.
The trial has been dismissed as a sham by Amnesty International and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has condemned it as incompatible with the rule of law.
Despite being behind bars, Navalny has called for protests against what Russia calls its special military operation in Ukraine. His supporters now fear that as a result, he might be placed in a maximum security prison as well as receiving an increased sentence.