A Russian court on Tuesday increased the prison sentence for a jailed opposition politician and ally of dead Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny from seven to nine years, independent media and the exiled opposition said.
Lilia Chanysheva, who once headed Navalny’s offices in the central Bashkortostan republic, was last year sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on “extremism” charges.
But the central republic’s supreme court extended that sentence to nine-and-a-half years, independent media and Navalny’s team said on social media.
“Lilia Chanysheva’s sentence was hardened to 9.5 years,” Navalny’s team said on social media.
“In recent days, her husband has said that she was very sick in the last few months,” it added.
A social media channel run by Chanysheva’s allies confirmed the sentence.
Her husband, Almaz Gatin, said on the channel on Monday that authorities were taking “revenge” on his wife.
“My wife looked after the republic, looked after the citizens. All of her work was legal and there were no complaints,” he said in a video on the Telegram channel.
Chanysheva is one of the few Navalny allies still in Russia.
Fears for jailed Russian opposition members have risen since Navalny died in mysterious circumstances in an Arctic prison in February.
Moscow has orchestrated a huge crackdown on dissent since sending troops to Ukraine in February 2022.
Chanysheva had worked for major companies including Deloitte before joining Navalny’s team in 2017.
She was detained in 2021 and was the first Navalny ally to stand trial, on charges of creating an “extremist organisation”.
She is also one of the few high-profile women in the Russian opposition.
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