🟦 Mariupol hostage Iryna Navalna – four years in Siberian torture cells

Abducted in occupied Mariupol, tortured into a false confession, and jailed on fabricated charges — the case of Iryna Navalna.

🟦 Kidnapped in her native Mariupol

Iryna Navalna (24) was abducted on 27 September 2022 in occupied Mariupol.

Russian state media immediately aired a forced "confession" claiming she planned a terrorist attack to disrupt the fake "referendum" on joining Russia.

She was charged with attempted terrorism and illegal possession of explosives.

In court she retracted the confession and stated she had been held and tortured from the day of her abduction.

🟦 Siberian torture cells

For four years Iryna has had no phone calls or letters from her mother.

She is now held in Yurgamysh Prison Colony No. 7 in Kurgan oblast (Siberia), where cells are freezing even in summer.

She has suffered severe health problems, including an intestinal operation, lymph node inflammation, thrombosis and chronic headaches, with inadequate medical care.

Earlier she was held in solitary confinement and placed with criminal prisoners who beat and tormented her.

🟦 Why she was targeted

Her mother believes Iryna was singled out partly because she shares the surname of the late Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

Russia needed a "thwarted terrorist plot" narrative to justify its staged referendum and claimed annexation.

Access to her lawyer remains illegally restricted.

There have been no recent exchanges of women prisoners, leaving Iryna and others in prolonged total isolation.

[Source: Kharkiv Human Rights Group]