Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, on Friday condemned the ruling by a Moscow Court, sentencing him to an additional 19 years of imprisonment for the creation of an "extremist community."

As the European External Action Service reports, the EU, as stated by Borrell, "strongly condemns" the decision by a Moscow Court agains Navalny and also the fact that the court hearings were conducted in a closed setting in a high-security prison outside Moscow.

"The Russian legal system shows how much Russian authorities are afraid of him and their disregard for the human rights of their own citizens," said the top EU diplomat.

Borrell also recalled that the EU continues to condemn the poisoning of Navalny by Russian security services in August 2020, as well as Moscow's refusal to comply with the European Court of Human Rights' decision on his immediate release from prison.

Referring to instances of torture and harsh treatment of Navalny in prison, the EU's chief diplomat emphasised that "Russia's political leadership is responsible for his safety and health, for which they will be held to account."

Earlier on Friday, the Moscow City Court sentenced Navalny to an additional 19 years in prison for creating an extremist community, incitement to extremism, financing extremism, rehabilitation of Nazism. In another case, he was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for fraud and money laundering related to the Russian branch of the French cosmetics company Yves Rocher.