MOSCOW (AP) — Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has asked a court to halt the hourly nighttime checks he has been subjected to in his penal colony. Speaking Monday in a video link from prison, Navalny charged that he has done nothing that would warrant the authorities’ decision to designate him as a flight risk that has resulted in checks. He argued that the hourly nighttime checks “effectively amount to torture,” telling the judge that “you would go mad in a week” if subjected to such regular wake-ups. Navalny was arrested in January upon his return from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from the nerve agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin — accusations that Russian officials reject.
