Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has reportedly been sent to a dreaded “torture” prison notorious for sexual violence.
The high-profile Russian opposition leader did not show up for a meeting with his lawyers today at the Pokrov penal colony.
Leonid Volkov, Navalny's chief of staff, said in a statement on the Telegram app that his lawyer went to see him but was kept at the checkpoint until 2 pm before they told him: "There is no such convict."
It has now been reported he has been sent to the strict regime maximum security penal colony at Melekhovo, which is known for brutal beatings and the rape of male inmates.
Navalny's spokeswoman said there was speculation that he was being taken to the high-security penal colony IK-6 Melekhovo, about 250 km (155 miles) east of Moscow.
"The problem with his transfer to another colony is not only that the high-security colony is much scarier: it is more that we don't know where Alexei is. He is one-to-one with the system that has already tried to kill him", his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said.
Navalny has said that he wants to replace Putin and believes he would win an election if it was not rigged in the Kremlin leader’s favour.
Independent media outlet Mediazona last year revealed allegations of systematic torture and sexual violence at the facility known as correctional colony No. 6.
It is in the same Vladimir region as his previous Pokrovskaya general regime colony, a two-hour drive away.
Former convict Ivan Fomin, then 29, claimed that the governor of the colony, Roman Sahakyan, had forced him to refuse a lawyer with threats.
He was told that if he did not cooperate “they would rape me, and tie my legs and hands from behind".
He witnessed another inmate being punched in the stomach and beaten with piping.
The prisoner was then sexually assaulted with the piping.
Navalny’s press secretary Kira Yarmysh has said that while torture is used on prisoners in many Russian colonies, this jail is “a monstrous place even by such insane standards”.
There had been numerous testimonies about the facility, she said.
Navalny was jailed by the Kremlin at the start of 2021 upon returning to Russia after receiving medical treatment in Germany following a poison attack with a novichok nerve agent where he nearly lost his life.
The judge had been promoted by Vladimir Putin ahead of Navalny's sentence, which gave him over nine years in prison.
Navalny is seen as the most charismatic Putin foe, and the Russian warmonger refuses to mention his name.
A lawyer, the opposition politician has relentlessly exposed alleged corruption in Putin’s circle and has repeatedly said the case against him was fabricated.
He spoke out against the war in Ukraine, and vowed to “continue to fight the authorities”, declaring he was afraid of “neither the FSB, nor chemical weapons, nor Putin.”
