Jailed Kremlin-critic Aleksei Navalny has filed another lawsuit against Correctional Colony No. 2 in the Vladimir region where he is serving a prison sentence that he and his supporters consider politically motivated.
Navalny's lawyer Vadim Kobzev told the Novaya Gazeta newspaper on November 24 that his client's lawsuit is against the colony's decision to label him as "a person inclined to commit crimes of a terrorist or extremist nature."
The Petushki district court in the Vladimir region registered the lawsuit on November 18, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for December 9.
The court's website posted the information concerning Navalny’s lawsuit early on November 24, but removed it after several media outlets reported on the case.
This is Navalny's fourth lawsuit against the colony. Earlier this year he filed lawsuits against the penitentiary's decision to label him as a flight risk, another for the censorship of newspapers he receives, and one for the refusal by the colony's administration to deliver him a copy of the Koran, the holy book of Muslims.
Navalny later withdrew his lawsuits regarding the newspapers and the Koran saying the issues had been resolved.
The lawsuit related to his being labeled as a flight risk was rejected by the Petushki district court.
However, Navalny said on October 11 that this status had been changed to that of an inmate inclined to extremism and terrorism. Earlier in the year, a court in Moscow labeled all groups and organizations associated with Navalny as extremist.
Navalny was arrested in January upon his arrival from Germany where he had received life-saving treatment after being poisoned in Siberia with what was defined by European labs as a Novichok nerve agent. He has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering the poisoning, which the Kremlin has denied.
A Moscow court in February converted a 3 1/2-year suspended sentence on a charge that Navalny and his supporters call politically motivated to real jail time saying he broke the terms of the original sentence by leaving Russia for Germany for the health treatment he received. Navalny was in a coma at the time he was medically evacuated from Russia to Germany.
The court reduced the time Navalny must spend in prison to just over 2 1/2 years because of time already served in detention.
