Russia Jails Lawyers who Represented the Late Alexei Navalny

Three lawyers who represented the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have been sentenced to up to five and a half years in prison on charges of collaborating with an “extremist organization”.

Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser were arrested in October 2023 as Russian authorities stepped up pressure on the imprisoned Kremlin critic, who died suddenly last February in an Arctic prison.

The lawyers were brought to court in Petushki, east of Moscow, and accused of “using their profession” to convey messages between Navalny and his colleagues.

Navalny had likened the case to Soviet-era times, and an indication of the “state of the rule of law in Russia”

Igor Sergunin was the only lawyer of the three to plead guilty, according to independent reports, and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

Alexei Liptser was sentenced to five years in prison and Vadim Kobzev was also sentenced to five and a half years.

Kobzev’s lawyer, Andrei Grivtsov, said the evidence against them amounted to an invasion of individual privacy.

By: BBC