The chief officer of Penal Colony No. 6 in the Vladimir Region, where opposition activist Alexei Navalny is currently held, has forbidden his lawyers to show him any documents by covering the glass in the meeting room with opaque film. Now, Navalny and his lawyers can't even see each other, the politician's Telegram channel reports.
“This is exactly the kind of thing no one has ever seen. Before that, there lawyers were forbidden to pass me any documents, by being separated from me by a solid wall of metal bars and acrylic glass, but now this acrylic glass has been made opaque. They've put a film over it, and now lawyers can't even SHOW me any documents.”
According to the oppositionist, at a meeting with his lawyers on September 15, he no longer felt indignation looking at the “new invention of the Kremlin and prison authorities,” but simply laughed.
“Now a meeting with a lawyer is as much like a confession in a Catholic church as possible. I'm sitting on a chair in a meter-by-meter sized room. In front of me is an acrylic wall, behind which I can vaguely see the silhouette of a man. I can only guess that he is a lawyer by his voice. And now I keep wanting to say, “Forgive me, Father. I have sinned.”
On September 8, attorney-client privilege was lifted for Navalny. All of his incoming and outgoing attorney documents are subjected to a three-day review. On September 7, he was sent for the fourth time to a punishment cell for 15 days allegedly for being a “persistent offender”. He was deprived of visits.
Shortly before that, relatives of inmates serving time in Penal Colony 6 said the inmates were forbidden even to look at the opposition leader. According to them, when Navalny is being led through the penal colony, three buzzes sound. This means that inmates must look the other way. And if Navalny is outdoors at the time, they are required to move away from the windows.