The Kremlin opponent Alexej Navalnyj, who has already been imprisoned in the penal camp, is threatened with an even longer imprisonment for another charge in Russia.
The forty-five-year-old is accused of founding an organization that violates civil rights, the Russian investigative authority announced on Wednesday.
His anti-corruption fund FBK encouraged people to "engage in illegal activities," it said.
According to the law, Navalnyj threatens up to three years imprisonment, a fine or forced labor. Irrespective of international criticism, the opposition member was sentenced to several years' imprisonment in a camp at the beginning of the year for a different sentence. The judgment at that time was criticized for being politically motivated. According to calculations by his lawyers, Navalny, who barely survived a poison attack last year, could be released in the summer of 2023 after serving his previous camp detention.
The only one who is violating the rights of Russian citizens is President Vladimir Putin, wrote Navalnyj's team on the new indictment. Only recently, a Russian court ruled the anti-corruption fund and other organizations of Navalnyj as extremist and banned it. Critics complained that supporters of the opposition should be politically eliminated a few weeks before the parliamentary elections.