Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny moved to prison called a ‘torture chamber’

Alexei Navalny, Russia’s jailed opposition leader, has been taken to a prison colony described by activists as a "torture chamber" and the country's "scariest" jail.

Associates of the opposition figure raised the alarm on Tuesday about him being removed from prison and taken to an unknown destination by state authorities.

He was due to be transferred to a high-security facility after a Russian court upheld a verdict in May to sentence him to nine years behind bars for embezzlement but there had been no official announcement about when or where he would be moved.

Mr Navalny’s allies spoke out when a lawyer who went to see him in his prison outside Moscow was told he was no longer there.

Kira Yarmysh, his spokeswoman, confirmed to The Telegraph that he had been transferred to the IK-6 "Melekhovo" penal colony further from Moscow.

A lawyer was able to meet Mr Navalny, 46, there on Wednesday.

The penal colony has been subject to multiple media investigations into the abuse of inmates.

Ms Yarmysh said in May that it was "notorious for its prisoners being tortured and killed". She described it as "one of Russia's scariest prisons".

‘Inmates made to rape and beat others’

Vladimir Osechkin, a prisoner rights activist, this week said it was a “torture chamber”.

“Alexei has been taken to the [prison] where inmates have been made to beat and rape other prisoners to make them pliant," he said.

On Wednesday Mr Navalny said he had just arrived and did not have any immediate complaints.

"Hello to everyone from the strict regime zone," he said in a statement posted on Instagram.

He joked about having to carry a library of about 50 books which he had put together at his previous prison.

“I have to be honest: when I was carrying those bags yesterday, I thought maybe burning books is not a bad idea after all,” he said in a message conveyed through his lawyer.

Mr Navalny’s previous prison also had a notorious reputation but he did not report any instances of violence against him.

Russia’s arguably most popular opposition politician survived a near-fatal poisoning in 2020. He has been in jail since he returned to Moscow in 2021 after he was found guilty of breaking the terms of his suspended sentence while in a coma at a German hospital.