Navalny lawyers sentenced to prison terms
All three are charged with participating in an “extremist organization”.
On Friday 17 January, three former lawyers of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny were sentenced to prison terms in a closed trial at the Petushinsky court in the Vladimir region.
5.5 years for lawyer Vadim Kobzev, 5 years for Alexei Lipster and 3.5 years for Igor Sergunin, reports the news website Mediazona, whose journalist was present in court. Mediazona published several photos, that show all three lawyers standing behind bars in a courtroom.
The state investigators of the case alleged that the lawyers used their professional status to pass on messages from the imprisoned Aleksei Navalny to his associates. Thus, according to the state prosecution, with the help of the lawyers Navalny “continued to exercise the functions of the leader and director of an extremist community.”
As Mediazona points out, some of the journalists could not make it to the court building today because they were stopped by the police under the pretext of passport control.
Aleksei Navalny was an opposition leader who returned to Russia in January 2021 after being treated for Novichok poisoning in a German hospital.
Navalny was arrested on his arrival in Moscow. While he was in prison, in June 2021, the Russian authorities designated Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation as "extremist".
The foundation was known for several anti-corruption investigations involving high-ranking Russian officials, with millions of views on its YouTube channel.
Dozens of Navalny's allies and supporters across the country have had to flee Russia.
Many of those who didn't escape were prosecuted and imprisoned.
On 16 February 2024, Aleksei Navalny was found dead in a Russian prison.
"We know exactly why Putin killed Aleksei three days ago. We'll tell you soon," said his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, in her online statement.
Navalny's team later released a video saying that shortly before Navalny's death, they had been involved in negotiations to include Navalny in a prisoner swap. Navalny's team suggested that the Russian politician had been killed "to get rid of the bargaining chip”.
