 "Russian court hands 3 Navalny lawyers prison sentences for relaying opposition leader's messages")
A court in Russia has sentenced three lawyers who defended deceased opposition leader Alexei Navalny to “several years in prison” in its latest crackdown against the voices of dissent. The court found the lawyers guilty of sharing Navalny’s messages from prison to the outside world. The ruling came amid fears that Moscow will ramp up trials against legal representatives in addition to jailing their clients.
The Kremlin has moved forward in punishing everyone who was associated with Navalny after the Russian opposition leader faced an unexplained death in an Arctic prison colony last February. On Saturday, Navalny’s lawyers Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Liptser and Igor Sergunin were found guilty of participating in an “extremist organisation” by a court in the town of Petushki, AFP reported.
As per the report, Kobzev, who was the most high-profile member of Navalny’s team was sentenced to five and a half years in prison. Meanwhile, Liptser was handed five years and Sergunin three and a half years of jail sentence.
The sentence drew backlash from the West
What makes the sentencing crucial is the fact that the trio were almost the only people who were visiting Navalny in prison while the opposition leader was serving his own 19-year-long jail term. During his time in prison, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s political opponent communicated to the outside world by sharing messages through his lawyers.
His team used to publish the same messages on his social media platform, making it reach a wider audience. It is pertinent to note that passing letters and messages from prisoners through lawyers is not an illegal practice in Russia, making many surprised by the Saturday ruling.
Navalny’s exiled widow, Yulia Navalnaya reacted to the sentencing, insisting that the lawyers were “political prisoners and should be freed immediately”. Western nations like the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, all criticised the sentencing. “This is yet another example of the persecution of defence lawyers by the Kremlin in its effort to undermine human rights, subvert the rule of law and suppress dissent,” the US State Department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy called on the Kremlin to “release all political prisoners”. France’s foreign minister also described the court ruling as “yet another act of intimidation against the legal profession as a whole”, while Germany said that “even those meant to defend others before the law face harsh persecution”.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsA closed-room trial
According to AFP, the lawyers were sentenced in a closed-room trial in a court which was near the Pokrov prison where Navalny was held before he was moved to a remote colony above the Arctic Circle. “We are on trial for passing Navalny’s thoughts to other people,” Kobzev said in court last week, the Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, a statement from the court stated that the three attorneys had “used their status as lawyers while visiting convict Navalny … to ensure the regular transfer of information between the members of the extremist community, including those wanted and hiding outside the Russian Federation, and Navalny."
The ruling maintained that the passing of the messages allowed the Russian opposition leader to plan “crimes with an extremist character” from his maximum-security prison. In most of his messages, Navalny denounced Russia’s Ukraine offensive as “criminal” and urged his supporters “not to give up”. In October 2023, he also denounced the arrest of his lawyers calling it an attempt to isolate him.
Last week, Kobzev compared Moscow’s current crackdown on dissent to Stalin-era mass repression. “Eighty years have passed … and in the Petushki court, people are once again on trial for discrediting officials and the state agencies,” he said.
With inputs from AFP.
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