Russia on Friday sentenced three lawyers representing the late leader Alexei Navalny to several years in prison for smuggling his messages from prison to the outside world.
The case comes amid a widespread crackdown on dissidents during the Ukraine offensive, and alarms rights groups who fear the Russian government will step up trials against legal representatives in addition to jailing their clients. It gives a feeling.
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The Kremlin has continued to push for the punishment of Navalny’s associates after his unexplained death in an Arctic prison in February last year.
Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Liptzel and Igor Sergunin were found guilty of participating in an “extremist organization” by a court in the town of Petushki.
Mr. Kobzev, the most high-profile member of Mr. Navalny’s defense team, was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison, Mr. Liptzel was sentenced to 5 years, and Mr. Sergunin was sentenced to 3 1/2 years.
The ruling sparked outrage in the West.
They were almost the only people to see Navalny in prison while he was serving a 19-year sentence.
Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s main political opponent, communicates with the world through his lawyer with messages that his team has published on social media.
It is common practice in Russian prisons to pass letters and messages through lawyers.
Navalny’s exiled widow Yulia Navalnaya said the lawyers were “political prisoners and should be released immediately.”
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The United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom all criticized the ruling.
“This is yet another example of the Kremlin’s persecution of defense attorneys in a bid to violate human rights, subvert the rule of law, and stifle dissent,” U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
France’s foreign ministry called the ruling “another act of intimidation against the entire legal profession,” and Germany said: “Even those who intend to protect others before the law are subject to severe persecution.”
British Foreign Secretary David Lamy called on the Kremlin to “release all political prisoners.”
The lawyers spoke after a closed-door trial in Petushki, about 115 kilometers (70 miles) east of Moscow, near the Pokrov prison where Mr. Navalny was held before being transferred to a remote colony above the Arctic Circle. Convicted.
“We are on trial for conveying Mr. Navalny’s ideas to others,” Kobzev said in court last week, Novaya Gazeta reported.
According to a court statement, they “secured regular communications between Mr. Navalny and members of extremist communities, including those wanted and hiding outside the Russian Federation.” “He took advantage of his position as a lawyer while visiting Mr. Navalny.”
This allowed Navalny to plan “crimes of an extremist nature” from a high-security prison, the newspaper said.
In his message, Navalny condemned the Kremlin’s attack on Ukraine as “criminal” and urged supporters to “not give up.”
Navalny, himself a lawyer, was known for his sarcastic speeches in court, his attempts to indict officials, and his long legal tirade against prosecutors.
He had accused his lawyer of being arrested in October 2023 in an attempt to further isolate him.
Last week, Kobzev compared Moscow’s current crackdown on dissent to the massive repression of the Stalin era.
“Eighty years later, the Petushki court is once again putting on trial people who have undermined the credibility of officials and state institutions,” he said.
– “To scare you” –
Rights group OVD, which monitors political repression in Russia, said the ruling was intended to make it completely dangerous for the Russian government to defend political prisoners, something that is still allowed but has become more difficult. He said that it shows.
“Authorities are now effectively outlawing the defense of politically persecuted people,” the group said, adding that the move “risks destroying what little remains of the rule of law.” ” he said.
Navalnaya said last week that Russia had refused to remove her husband from its list of terrorists and extremists, despite his death.
He released a December letter from Russia’s financial watchdog Rozfin Monitoring to Mr Navalny’s mother, saying his son remains under investigation on charges of money laundering and “terrorist financing”. said.
“Why does Putin need this? It is clear that he will not stop Alexei from opening a bank account,” Navalnaya said.
“Putin is doing this to scare you.”
