MOSCOW — Jailed Kremlin critic
Alexei Navalny's team said it
was disbanding its network of regional campaign offices across Russia on
Thursday as the opposition figure appeared in a video link from jail, looking
gaunt after a hunger strike.
اضافة اعلان
His allies made their announcement in a YouTube video before
a
court hearing which was due to consider a request from prosecutors to declare
the main pillars of Navalny's political organization as extremist.
A Moscow court barred Navalny's
Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and his separately run network of regional campaign offices from posting
online earlier this week.
The FBK was barred on Tuesday from accessing its bank
accounts at the request of the prosecutor, and from organizing protests and
publishing media articles, while the court considers further action.
If the network is declared extremist, authorities will gain
the legal power to hand down jail terms to activists and freeze bank accounts.
Navalny, 44, is serving a 2-1/2 year jail sentence for
parole violations on an earlier conviction that he says was politically
motivated.
In his first appearance since his hunger strike, which he
has said he is gradually ending, a shaven-headed Navalny looked physically
drained and to have lost weight, according to a reporter who saw him in a
grainy video link during the legal hearing.
Navalny declared his hunger strike in prison on March 31 to
demand proper medical care for leg and back pain. He said on April 23 that he
would start gradually ending it after getting medical care, even as the
political prospects for him and his movement darkened.
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