Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny has reportedly been moved from his jail colony to an unknown location.
Navalny's chief of workers, Leonid Volkov, mentioned the jailed Kremlin critic had been transferred with out warning on Tuesday.
"Alexei Navalny was taken away from the penal colony No. 2 [in Pokrov near Moscow]," Volkov mentioned on Telegram.
"His lawyer, who got here to see him, was held on the gate till 14:00, after which was advised that there is no such thing as a such convict," he added.
"We have no idea the place Alexei is now and to which colony he's being taken."
The identical assertion was shared on Tuesday by Navalny's press secretary Kira Yarmysh.
"After all, neither Alexei's attorneys nor his family members had been knowledgeable about his switch prematurely," she wrote on Twitter.
"There have been rumours that he was going to be transferred to the high-security penal colony IK-6 'Melekhovo', however it's inconceivable to know when (and if) he'll really arrive there."
Navalny was arrested on his return to Moscow in January 2021, after he spent a number of months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Moscow has at all times denied the allegations.
He was then imprisoned for two-and-half years for violating the parole situations of a 2014 fraud cost. He has been serving his sentence at Penal Colony No. 2 in Pokrov, round 100 kilometres east of Moscow.
In March, Navalny was given a further nine-year sentence for fraud and contempt of courtroom -- expenses that she says are politically motivated.
His Anti-Corruption Basis (FBK) has been outlawed as an "extremist" organisation. and plenty of of his allies have been pressured into exile.
Judges have ordered for Navalny to be transferred to a maximum-security jail in Russia for repeat offenders, the place his rights to visits will likely be lowered.
Final week, Navalny additionally misplaced an attraction over a courtroom choice to label him an "extremist" and a terrorist.
Volkov -- who himself left Russia whereas dealing with a number of felony circumstances -- has beforehand mentioned that Russian authorities need the opposition chief to stay in jail "till Vladimir Putin or Navalny dies".
"The issue along with his switch to a different colony will not be solely that the high-security colony is way scarier," Yarmysh mentioned on Twitter.
"So long as we do not know the place Alexei is, he stays one-on-one with the system that has already tried to kill him, so our principal job now's to find him as quickly as attainable."
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