Watchdog

Imprisoned Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny says prison authorities have informed him that they have decided to revoke his right to attorney-client privilege because he continues to commit crimes from prison.

The authorities told him he has “communicated with accomplices” through lawyers and they are therefore abolishing the attorney-client privilege, Navalny said on Twitter on September 8.

Navalny -- who is serving two sentences about 260 kilometers east of Moscow on charges of violating parole and embezzlement that are widely seen as being fabricated. -- said that prison authorities took him out of his cell to inform him of the decision.

They accused him of continuing his criminal activity “directly from the prison facilities,” he tweeted.

Navalny added that, when he asked what “extremist crimes” he has committed from prison, he was told: “This is secret information, you are not allowed to know it, we will not give you the inspection materials. All you need to know is that the attorney-client privilege no longer applies to you.”

They also informed him that employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service will now read all the documents exchanged between him and his lawyer and it will take three days for communications from one side to reach the other, he said.

He said the slot used to transfer documents to his lawyers has been nailed shut and in-person meetings with his lawyer will take place through a double pane of Plexiglas with bars inside.

“Our communication is now more like a pantomime, to be honest,” he said.

Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service did not immediately reply to a request for comment, Reuters said.

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5 Things To Know About Russian Opposition Leader Aleksei Navalny

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Navalny was arrested in January last year upon his return to Moscow from Germany, where he was treated for a poison attack in Siberia in 2020 with what European labs defined as a Soviet-style nerve agent.

Navalny, Vladimir Putin's most vocal critic, has blamed the Russian president for the poison attack, a charge that the Kremlin has denied.

He has recently complained about being sent to solitary confinement, saying that prison authorities have used the tactic because of political activities that his associates continue from abroad and because he established a labor union in the penal colony.

With reporting by Reuters

SHYMKENT, Kazakhstan -- Scuffles between protesters and police broke out in the southern Kazakh city of Shymkent after a court upheld the sentences of three activists who were convicted for taking part in mass anti-government demonstrations in January.

Angry relatives and supporters of Qairat Sultanbek, Lazzat Dosmambetova, and Zhanmurat Ashtaev, ran after the judge as he quickly left the courtroom following his verdict on September 8 before bailiffs and police officers intervened, leading to a brawl.

The melee was pushed out of the court building where dozens more activists joined in scuffles with the police.

In mid-July, the Al-Farabi district court sentenced Sultanbek, 48, and Dosmambetova, 51, to 3 years and seven months in prison each, while Ashtaev, 44, was handed 3 years and one month in prison. All were convicted of taking part in mass disorders, a charge all three have rejected.

The protesters demanded that the judge or a prosecutor explain why the activists' sentences were upheld, insisting that they were innocent.

Police attempted to detain some of the protesters, but failed to so as the activists' supporters and relatives interfered.

Meanwhile, police inside the court's building detained Ashtaev's four brothers and took them away to a police station.

Afterward relatives of the activists gathered in front of the court building with headbands saying "Hunger Strike." They said that they will remain at the site until their demands for the release of the activists are met.

Unprecedented mass anti-government protests rocked the Central Asian nation in early January. The peaceful protests turned violent, leaving at least 238 people, including 19 police officers, dead.

Authorities in Shymkent say 20 individuals died and 207 were injured in the city during the unrest, which was initally sparked by a fuel-price hike and then quickly turned into broader anti-government protests.

Last week, Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev said a mass amnesty will be declared soon for all individuals involved in the unrest and its aftermath, including law enforcement officers. Many relatives of those killed and arrested during and after the unrest viewed the clemency idea as a move to evade investigations of the deadly January developments.