A Court sitting in Russian city of Ufa on Wednesday, sentenced Liliya Chanysheva, a former associate of opposition activist Alexei Navalny to seven and a half years in a penal colony.
The court in the city of the Urals, some 1,200 kilometres east of Moscow, found her guilty of setting up an “extremist organisation.”
Navalny and his jailed associates are seen in the West as victims of increasingly repressive Russian policies.
Chanysheva led a team of Navalny supporters in Ufa for four years up to 2021.
However, her work ceased when the organisation was listed as “extremist” by the Russian judicial authorities and effectively banned.
Navalny spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh tweeted that the sentence was harsh.
“7.5 years for the fact that you fight for your country, this judgement is a crime.”
Navalny, who narrowly survived poisoning with Novichok in 2020, is currently on trial on charges of advocating extremism.
President Vladimir Putin’s best-known Russian opponent has been held in a penal colony some 260 kilometres north-east of Moscow for the past two years.
He faces up to 30 years if convicted in the current trial.
His supporters have repeatedly drawn attention to his poor health and solitary confinement.
dpa/NAN
