A court in Siberia has rejected an appeal by Ksenia Fadeyeva, an ally of the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, Ksenia Fadeyeva, against a nine-year prison sentence for “extremism,” local mediareported Tuesday.
Fadeyeva, Navalny’s former regional coordinator in Tomsk, was among his few allies who remained in Russia despite the risk of criminal prosecution after his political network was outlawed as “extremist” in 2021. Fadeyeva was detained later that year and, last December, sentenced after being found guilty of creating an “extremist organization.”
A three-person Tomsk District Court board ruled Tuesday to turn down Fadeyeva’s appeal and keep her in a prison colony for nine years, according to the TV2 Telegram news channel.
The appeal hearing was held behind closed doors.
“I’m still a deputy of the Tomsk city council and Tomsk residents have to know what’s happening with someone they have elected,” Fadeyeva, who was elected in 2020,said Thursday.
The court ruling came one day after the European Union imposedsanctions on several Russian judges, including three from Tomsk, for past rulings that it said had violated Navalny’s rights and freedoms.
One Tomsk judge was accused of imposing a “ban on certain actions” on Fadeyeva in the EU sanctions designation.
Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition figure, died while serving an “extremism” sentence in an Arctic penal colony at age 47 earlier in February.
Russia has used laws on "terrorist" and "extremist" bodies to hand out years-long jail sentences to critics, including Navalny himself.
