A Russian judge who privately apologised to Vladimir Putin rival and opposition leader Alexei Navalny for jailing him died in "suspicious" circumstances, according to reports.
Judge Natalya Repnikova, 50, was responsible for jailing the leading Vladimir Putin foe in February last year.
But he revealed in a court hearing that she passed him a private note to express her remorse at her role in imprisoning him, and praising him as a “brave man”.
She later died of ‘Covid’ but Navalny believes she may have been assassinated for her honesty in revealing judicial corruption to its most high-profile victim.
A local politician in Moscow suggested she had been killed with novichok, a nerve agent also used to poison Navalny, almost killing him, in an alleged hit by FSB agents.
Vadim Korovin posted: "Judge Repnikova, who replaced Alexei Navalny's suspended sentence with a real [jail term], has DIED.
“Novichok is novichok for everyone. Rest, Oh Lord, the soul of your departed servant Nataliya...."
The judge’s family has not commented on her unexpected death.
Navalny said in his latest court hearing, appearing via video-link, that he was ready to spend time in jail "to prove that not everyone in Russia is like" Putin.
He told how after jailing him in February she passed on a message via lawyers that she was "sorry about her decision and her part in it and that she thought I was a brave man”.
Then he said: "Shortly after that she died of Covid. I don't want to speculate, but she didn't strike me as someone in a high-risk group.
“So if any judges want to pass on a word to me and they will please be careful you don't end up seeing forensic experts on your doorstep.”
Repnikova was a prominent judge who had presided over a case involving corruption at Vostochny cosmodrome.
Her death has echoes of the demise of Dr Sergei Maksimishin, who had initially saved the life of Navalny after he was poisoned with novichok, and fell ill on a plane which made an emergency landing in Omsk, Siberia.
Navalny was subsequently flown to Germany for treatment.
One version of Maksimishin’s death was that it was from Covid, although there was no evidence he had suffered from it. A colleague Maria Morozova who had been with him shortly before his death said his demise was “very unexpected”.
At the time, opposition sources alleged he had been “liquidated”.
“The issue is not whether he was involved in the treatment of Alexei Navalny, but the reason for his liquidation was his readiness to share information about the treatment that he had access to,” said a post on a Telegram channel called General SVR.
Repnikova jailed Navalny for breaking probation conditions while in Germany being treated for poisoning.
This was despite Putin personally permitting him to fly to Germany for treatment , after he was poisoned allegedly by Russian state agents.
Navalny is currently serving the two-and-a-half year term to which she sentenced him.
But he is now due to be sent to a tougher jail after yesterday losing an appeal against a new nine year sentence - the latest conviction in what he believes to be a succession of politically motivated prosecutions.
He told the judge in this week’s hearing: "I despise your court, your system. It's you, your system and Putin who are traitors against the Russian people.
“I am ready to sit in jail to prove that not everyone in Russia is like this."
He forecast Russia would suffer an “historic defeat” in its war with Ukraine.
Kira Yarmysh, Navalny's spokeswoman, warned he will be sent to a jail which is “notorious for its prisoners being tortured and killed”.
Navalny has been told he is due to be sent to a strict regime maximum security penal colony at Melekhovo which is known for brutal beatings and the rape of male inmates.
