On Friday, a Russian court docket convicted three attorneys of late opposition chief Alexei A. Navalny was jailed for a full 5 and a half years for passing on correspondence from him to his allies, a stark reminder of how the Kremlin continues to be pursuing his associates even after his dying.
The three attorneys – Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser – have been arrested in October 2023 whereas Mr Navalny was in a high-security jail colony in Siberia, in a stark warning that the Kremlin supposed to sever Mr Navalny’s ties n Navalny with the skin world.
The town court docket in Petushki, about 80 miles east of Moscow, convicted the three attorneys, all of whom represented Mr. Navalny in some unspecified time in the future previously decade, of collaborating in an extremist group, Russian information businesses reported from the courtroom.
Even from jail, Mr. Navalny was the most well-liked opposition determine in Russia, difficult the rule of President Vladimir V. Putin, and authorities banned his nationwide motion as extremist shortly earlier than the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Mr. Kobzev was sentenced to 5 and a half years in jail, Mr. Lipzer to 5 years and Igor Sergunin, the one one of many three who pleaded responsible, to a few and a half years.
Yulia Navalnaya, Mr Navalny’s widow, in a statement on Friday known as the three attorneys political prisoners and demanded their launch. And Lyubov Sobol, considered one of Mr. Navalny’s longtime allies, said to X that the choice was “dictated by the Kremlin and aimed toward taking revenge on those that stood by Navalny’s aspect till the top.”
Prosecutors mentioned through the trial that the attorneys “used their place” to go Mr Navalny’s correspondence from a jail colony in Petushki, the place he frolicked earlier than being transferred to Siberia, to his allies in Russia and overseas.
In its ruling, the court docket agreed with their declare that this allowed Mr Navalny “to meet his function because the chief and head of an extremist organisation”.
Two different attorneys for Mr. Navalny, Olga Mihailova and Alexander Fedulov, have been charged in absentia as a result of they fled the nation. Their case is but to be heard.
Mr Navalny was serving a 19-year sentence on a number of costs when he died in a high-security jail colony in February final 12 months. Russian authorities attributed his dying to a collection of sicknesses exacerbated by a coronary heart arrhythmia, a conclusion strongly rejected by his household and allies, with Ms Navalnaya suggesting the state was answerable for his dying.
A few of the letters and jail diaries that attorneys helped get out of Petushki jail have been included in Mr Navalny’s memoirswhich was printed posthumously late final 12 months.
Mr. Navalny’s attorneys argued within the trial that they have been being prosecuted for routine authorized work, comparable to liaising between a shopper and their household or associates.
Mr Kobzev, who labored aspect by aspect with the opposition chief, instructed the court docket that “we’re on trial for passing on Navalny’s ideas to different folks”, in line with the Novaya Gazeta newspaper.
The three attorneys have been caged within the courtroom, and at the beginning of Friday’s listening to, supporters chanted “Happy with you! You’re the finest folks of Russia!” as they smiled at supporters and journalists, in line with footage on social media.
In an obvious try and dampen the present of assist, police detained 4 journalists and one supporter on Friday morning as they arrived by practice in Petushki. They have been launched with out cost after the decision was introduced, in line with Mediazona, an impartial media outlet in Russia.
The prosecution of the attorneys was in step with the Kremlin’s try and isolate Mr Navalny, who has managed to stay an essential voice in Russian politics regardless of imprisonment, and his anti-corruption basis.
Attorneys representing the three colleagues instructed reporters outdoors court docket that they weren’t intimidated by the prosecution. “Issues may be completely different, however being a lawyer isn’t about being afraid,” mentioned considered one of them, Dennis Leil, who represents Mr. Lipzer, talking to Mediazona.
Ivan Zhdanov, chairman of the Anti-Corruption Basis, mentioned the choice would set a harmful precedent for the nation’s authorized system as a result of folks might be held accountable for one thing as innocuous as handing over correspondence.
“Attorneys already knew they have been being monitored throughout conferences with their purchasers,” he wrote on his Telegram channel. “Now they are going to know that they’ve been watched, recorded and that it may be used towards them in court docket to convict them.”
