Three defense lawyers for Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny, who died in detention in 2024, were sentenced on Friday in Russia to sentences of between 3.5 and 5.5 years in prison.
Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser were arrested in October 2023 and added to an official list of “terrorists and extremists” the following month.
Kobzev was sentenced to five and a half years in prison. Liptser was sentenced to five years and Sergunin to three and a half years.
The lawyers are accused of belonging to an extremist organization. Navalny’s networks were deemed extremist following a 2021 decision banning his organizations as extremist groups.
Trial puts pressure on opposition
Navalny died suddenly in an Arctic penal colony last February. He had also been convicted of extremism and other charges, all of which he denied.
His widow, Yulia Navalnaïa, requested the “immediate” release of the lawyers. On her X account, she declared that Kobzev, Liptser and Sergunin are “political prisoners and must be released immediately.”
The case was widely seen as a way to increase pressure on the opposition and discourage defense lawyers from taking on political cases.
The Kremlin says it does not comment on individual court cases. But authorities portrayed Navalny and his supporters as Western-backed traitors trying to destabilize Russia.
Germany urges Russia to release Navalny’s lawyers
The German government condemned the imprisonment of the three lawyers and called for their release.
“Today’s shocking verdict is no surprise: even those who are supposed to defend others before the law face harsh persecution,” Human Rights Commissioner Luise Amtsberg said on the social network Bluesky, adding that the three “must be released.”
Separately, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Kathrin Deschauer told a news conference that the case showed that “Russia’s system of repression has reached a new sad low point.”
dh/rmt (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)
