Keir says Boris 'thinks he’s Obi wan Kenobi, when he’s really Jabba the Hut'

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has reportedly been sent to a ‘torture’ prison notorious for the systematic sexual abuse of inmates.

Oleg Yazhan, chairman of the Public Monitoring Commission, told state media that the Kremlin critic had arrived in ‘IK-6’, referring to a prison in Melekhovo, some 150 miles east of Moscow.

The strict maximum security penal colony is known for brutal beatings and the rape of male prisoners.

Navalny’s aides said they could not confirm that he had been transferred to that facility and could not account for his whereabouts after he disappeared from his previous standard-security jail yesterday.

The alleged move to the strict regime jail is linked to the start of a new nine year sentence seen as politically motivated by the Russian opposition and the West.

Navalny has said that he wants to replace Putin, and believes he would win an election if it was not rigged in the Kremlin leader’s favour.

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Yesterday Navalny’s allies had sounded an alarm, saying he was missing from the Pokrov penal colony, where he had spent months behind bars.

The lawyer who went to see Navalny was told ‘there is no such convict there’ and was turned away.

Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said in a tweet last night that she was aware of the media reports about the transfer, but she had not yet had confirmation.

She has previously said that while torture is used on prisoners in many Russian colonies, Melekhovo is ‘a monstrous place even by such insane standards’.

Independent media outlet Mediazona last year revealed allegations of systematic torture and sexual violence at the facility, known as correctional colony No. 6.

Former convict Ivan Fomin, then 29, claimed that the governor of the colony, Roman Sahakyan, had forced him to refuse a lawyer with threats to beat and rape him.

He said he witnessed another inmate being punched in the stomach and beaten with piping on his heels and bottom before being raped with the piping.

Navalny also addressed rumours of brutality when he was first told about a possible transfer.

He wrote on Instagram in May: ‘My [new] verdict has not yet entered into force, but prisoners from Melekhovo maximum security colony write that they are equipping a “prison in prison” for me there.

‘They say that if you google “Melekhovo”, there will be stories of prisoners about how nails are pulled out there. Well, then I will have a reason to use a trendy emoji 💅’.

Navalny is seen as the most charismatic Putin foe, and the Russian leader refuses even to mention his name.

The lawyer and opposition politician has relentlessly exposed alleged corruption in Putin’s circle.

He won admiration when he voluntarily returned to Russia last year from Germany, where he recovered from a severe nerve agent poisoning attack he blamed on Putin.

Navalny was accused of violating the terms of his parole because he did not show up for checks with local authorities in Russia, and sentenced him to 2.5 years in jail.

The opposition leader ridiculed the charge at the time, saying he could not keep up with the visits as he was in a coma.

Then in March, Navalny was sentenced to nine years of strict regime prison for ‘fraud and insulting the court’.

The judge had been promoted by Vladimir Putin ahead of the sentence.

Navalny says the case against him was fabricated.

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He has continued to defy the Kremlin from his jail cell, using closing arguments in his court appearances to make political speeches and passing on written statements for his multimillion social media followers via lawyers.

Last month, he branded Putin a ‘madman’ and lambasted the ‘stupid war’ in Ukraine.

Many of Mr Navalny’s allies and activists have been jailed or forced into exile by police, with his organisation branded ‘extremist’ by the state.

His team confirmed two weeks ago that he had been charged in a new criminal case.

Prosecutors allege he created an extremist organisation and accused him of inciting hatred towards the authorities, offences that carry a maximum jail term of 15 more years.

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