Fri Jan 17 16:56:13 UTC 2025: ## Russian Court Sentences Navalny’s Lawyers to Prison
**Moscow, January 17, 2025** – A Russian court sentenced three lawyers who represented opposition leader Alexei Navalny to lengthy prison terms on Friday. Vadim Kobzev received five and a half years, Alexei Liptser five years, and Igor Sergunin three and a half years, all for allegedly conveying messages from Navalny while he was imprisoned.
The lawyers were convicted of participating in an extremist organization, a charge widely condemned by international human rights groups and foreign governments. The trial, held behind closed doors in the town of Petushki, has sparked outrage, with critics highlighting the increasingly harsh crackdown on dissent in Russia.
The charges stemmed from the lawyers’ passing of messages from Navalny to the outside world, a standard practice in Russian prisons. Navalny, who died in prison last February, used his lawyers to communicate his condemnation of the Kremlin’s actions in Ukraine and to urge his supporters not to give up. Navalny’s team claims prison authorities secretly filmed these confidential meetings.
The Netherlands called the prosecution a “new low point” in Russia’s human rights record, while Germany decried the persecution of those defending others. The UK’s foreign minister, David Lammy, echoed these sentiments, demanding the release of all political prisoners.
The OVD-Info human rights group warned that the sentences effectively criminalize the defense of political prisoners in Russia. International legal organizations, like the UIA, also expressed grave concern over the precedent set by the case, fearing it will deter lawyers from representing politically sensitive clients. Even after Navalny’s death, his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, highlighted the continued efforts by Russian authorities to persecute his legacy, noting he remains on a terrorist and extremist list. She stated this is an intimidation tactic by Putin’s regime. Kobzev, in his own words during the trial, described the proceedings as a continuation of Stalin-era repression.
First Piper 