State prosecution requests 12 years behind bars for former head of regional ‘Navalny’s Headquarters’ Liliya Chanysheva

She is charged with calls for extremism and creating an organisation that violates citizens’ rights

State prosecution has requested 12 years in a penal colony for Liliya Chanysheva, the former head of “Navalny’s Headquarters” in the Russian city of Ufa, media outlet Sirena reports.

The court trial is being conducted behind closed doors. Chanysheva was charged with calls for extremism, extremist community activities through abuse of office, and foundation of an organisation that violates citizens’ rights.

“It doesn’t matter what sentence she gets — 5 years, 10, 15, 20 — it matters how long the devil will stay alive for,” her lawyer Sergey Makarenko told media outlet SOTA.

At the end of March, it was reported that Pavel Zelensky, an ex-employee of the Anti-Corruption Foundation established by Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny, testified against Chanysheva.

Chanysheva was the first person arrested in the criminal case on establishing an “extremist community” initiated against Navalny and his associates. She was detained in November 2021 and sent to a pre-trial detention centre. The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case on founding and leading an extremist community against Alexey Navalny in September 2021. The other persons of interest in the case are Navalny’s associates Leonid Volkov and Ivan Zhdanov.