Russia will imprison lawyers defending opposition leader Alexei Navalny

Not a valid attachment ID.
Russia  will imprison lawyers  defending opposition leader Alexei Navalny
Reuters  Three lawyers stand behind bars in a courtroom in the  city of  Petushki, Vladimir  region, Russia, January 17,  2025 Reuters
Igor Sergunin, Alexei Liptser and Vadim Kobzev were  sentenced to  five and a half years in prison.
Three lawyers who  defended Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have been  sentenced to  five and a half years  in prison for participating in an "extremist  organization."
Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser were arrested in October 2023  after Russian authorities  stepped up pressure on the jailed Kremlin critic, who died suddenly last February in an Arctic  penal colony.
They were  tried behind closed doors in Petushki, a town east of Moscow, and  were accused of "using their status" to  pass messages between Navalny and his  colleagues.
Navalny denounced the  case, calling it similar to that of the Soviet  era and  a sign of "the rule of law in  Russia."
According to independent sources, Igor Sergunin was the only one of the three to  be found guilty and  received a lighter sentence of  three and a half years in prison. Alexei Liptser was  sentenced to five years in a penal colony and Vadim Kobzev  to five and a half years.
Kobzev's lawyer, Andrei Grivtsov, said the evidence against them  constituted an illegal invasion of  privacy.
"They are not allowed  in principle to  spy on meetings between a lawyer and a client in a penal colony -  there is a direct legislative ban," he told BBC  Russia.
Alexei Liptser's lawyer, Andrei Orlov, told reporters that Friday's court decision was very sad: "But we  will not  stop immediately. We will continue to  move forward."
The three lawyers were  tried near the  Pokrov penal  colony, where Navalny was initially sent  on his return to Russia in January 2021,  after surviving a nerve agent attack that Russian leader Vladimir  Putin blamed. The Kremlin denied the  charges and Navalny remained in Russian penal colonies until his death, north of the Arctic Circle and  1,200 kilometers northeast of  Moscow.
His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, blamed Putin for his death, which authorities  attributed to  "sudden death  syndrome."
A few months after  Navalny's arrest in 2021,  Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation and  its regional offices were banned by a Moscow court, which  labeled them  "extremist."
Navalny, who was already in  prison on other charges, was  later convicted of founding and  financing an extremist  organization.
The director of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, Ivan Zhdanov,  noted that the three lawyers were sentenced on  January 17 - the same day Navalny was arrested and  imprisoned after his return to Russia from Germany:  "I think it's a  coincidence." Amnesty International said that  for the lawyers, "simply doing their job, the Russian authorities  have dismantled what remains of the right to legal  protection." Investigators said the three men had acted as members of Navalny's "extremist  community," meeting  and sharing information with the opposition  leader.
Yulia Navalnaya said the three men were "political prisoners and should be  released immediately."
Another of Navalny's lawyers, Olga Mikhailova, who  fled Russia, said the sentences were "brutal and absurd" and that the men  were punished for  the honest performance of "their duties, their professional and moral  position".
Ms. Mikhailova, whose offices were raided in 2023, says she herself has been accused of  extremism. Another  of Navalny's lawyers, Alexander Fedulov, also fled Russia after  the arrest of three  of his colleagues. Following his arrest, Navalny appeared at a court hearing in October 2023 from a  high-security penal colony  in eastern Moscow and complained that he had been denied legal  representation.
"My lawyer is not here. All the other lawyers are not here.  No one is allowed to visit me. I am isolated and cut off from any  information," he  said during the  hearing. Two months  later he was  transferred to an even more remote penal colony  called Polar Wolf, where he was held in a punishment cell and died  at the age of 47. His widow  dismissed the cause of death  given by  the authorities as a lie.

[attachment deleted by admin]