Human rights activists warn that the persecution of lawyers is crossing a new threshold of repression
Russian prosecutors have demanded sentences of up to nearly six years in prison for three lawyers who represented the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, News.bg reports.
According to information from Navalny’s ally Ivan Zhdanov, published on Telegram, the prosecutors are demanding:
- 5 years and 11 months in prison for Vadim Kobzev,
- 5 years and 10 months for Alexei Liptser,
- 5 years and 6 months for Igor Sergunin.
The three are accused of participating in an “extremist organization”. They were arrested in October 2023 and subsequently added to an official list of “terrorists and extremists”.
According to the defense – – “political prisoners”
Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Alexei Navalny, defended the lawyers, calling them “political prisoners” and stressed that they were simply carrying out their professional duties. “They were developing defense strategies and appealing the conditions of detention, as any lawyer should be,” she said in a YouTube video.
Human rights activists say the lawyers’ case sets a dangerous precedent in intensifying repression against those who disagree with the government.
Secret trial and recordings of lawyers’ meetings
The trial against the three lawyers was held behind closed doors at the insistence of prosecutors, citing “security threats”.
Yulia Navalnaya showed videos of secretly filmed meetings between lawyers and Alexei Navalny in prison, which she said was a gross violation of the right to confidentiality between a lawyer and a client. Navalnaya claims the recordings were given to her team in exchange for a reward for information about her husband’s death.
Sources
Russia demands prison sentences for three Navalny lawyers for involvement in extremism
