Prosecutors move to extend prison sentence for Navalny ally Lilia Chanysheva

Prosecutors have requested the prison sentence given to the former head of Alexey Navalny’s headquarters in the Volga region city of Ufa be extended by two and a half years, SOTAvision reported on Monday.

Lilia Chanysheva, who was detained in 2021 at a rally protesting Navalny’s arrest, was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison in 2023 for “creating an extremist community”.

The prosecutor said during an appeals court hearing in the city of Samara that Chanysheva’s original sentence had been “too lenient” given that she had “incited” local residents to take to the streets and protest.

Chanysheva said in court that the charges against her were baseless as she headed Navalny’s regional headquarters before it was recognised as an “extremist organisation”.

The appeals court declined to extend Chanysheva’s sentence on Monday, however, and referred the case to the regional Supreme Court.

Chanysheva’s lawyer, who described his client’s existing sentence as “excessively harsh and politically motivated”, predicted that the Supreme Court would ultimately grant the prosecution’s request for an extension to Chanysheva’s sentence.