Russian Court Sentences Lawyers for Navalny for Passing Along His Letters

[ad_1] A Russian courtroom on Friday sentenced three attorneys for the late opposition chief Aleksei A. Navalny to as a lot as 5 and a half years in jail for passing on correspondence from him to his allies, a transparent reminder of how the Kremlin remains to be pursuing his associates even after his loss of life.

The three attorneys — Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Aleksei 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 was intent on severing Mr. Navalny’s hyperlinks to the skin world.

The town courtroom in Petushki, about 80 miles east of Moscow, convicted the three attorneys, all of whom represented Mr. Navalny sooner or later over the previous decade, of involvement in an extremist group, Russian information companies reported from the courtroom.

Even from jail, Mr. Navalny was the most well-liked opposition determine in Russia, defiantly difficult the rule of President Vladimir V. Putin, and the 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. Liptser to 5 years and Igor Sergunin, the one one of many three to plead responsible, to a few and a half years.

Yulia Navalnaya, Mr. Navalny’s widow, in a press release on Friday, known as the three attorneys political prisoners and urged their launch. And Lyubov Sobol, one among Mr. Navalny’s longstanding allies, stated on X that the ruling was “dictated by the Kremlin and seeks to take revenge in opposition to those that stayed by Navalny’s aspect until the tip.”

Prosecutors stated in the course of the trial that the attorneys “used their place” to move alongside Mr. Navalny’s correspondence from a jail colony in Petushki, the place he hung out earlier than being transferred to Siberia, to his allies in Russia and overseas.

Of their ruling, the courtroom agreed with their declare that doing so had allowed Mr. Navalny “to hold out his function because the chief and head of an extremist group.”

Two different attorneys for Mr. Navalny, Olga Mikhailova and Alexandr Fedulov, have been charged in absentia as a result of that they had fled the nation. Their case has but to be heard.

Mr. Navalny was serving a 19-year jail sentence on a number of costs when he died at a high-security jail colony in February final yr. The Russian authorities attributed his loss of life to a sequence of ailments aggravated by coronary heart arrhythmia, a conclusion that was strongly rejected by his household and allies, with Ms. Navalnaya suggesting that the state was chargeable for his loss of life.

A few of the letters and jail diaries that the attorneys helped to get out of the Petushki jail have been included in Mr. Navalny’s memoir, which was revealed posthumously late final yr.

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, advised the courtroom that “we're being tried for transmitting Navalny’s ideas to different folks,” based on the Novaya Gazeta newspaper.

The three attorneys had been positioned in a cage within the courtroom, and in the beginning of the listening to on Friday, supporters chanted “We’re happy with you! You’re Russia’s finest folks!” as they smiled to supporters and journalists, based on social media footage.

In an obvious try to dampen the present of help, the police on Friday morning detained 4 journalists and one supporter as they arrived by practice in Petushki. They have been launched with out being charged after the decision was introduced, based on Mediazona, an unbiased media outlet in Russia.

The prosecution of the attorneys was in step with the Kremlin’s try to isolate Mr. Navalny, who managed to stay an vital voice in Russian politics regardless of his incarceration, and his Anti-Corruption Basis.

Legal professionals who represented their three colleagues advised reporters exterior the courtroom they weren't intimidated by the prosecution. “Issues will be completely different however being a lawyer is just not about getting scared,” stated one, Denis Leisle, who represents Mr. Liptser, chatting with Mediazona.

Ivan Zhdanov, chairman of the Anti-Corruption Basis, stated the ruling would set a harmful precedent for the nation’s authorized system, as a result of folks could possibly be held responsible for one thing as innocuous as passing alongside correspondence.

“Legal professionals already knew they have been being monitored throughout conferences with their shoppers,” he wrote on his Telegram channel. “Now they may know they have been being monitored, recorded and that this could possibly be used in opposition to them in courtroom to convict them.”