Navalny’s three lawyers arrested in Russia

ALEXEI NAVALNY. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Three lawyers who previously defended the Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny were detained, and their apartments were searched in the morning.

Source: Radio Liberty, citing Navalny and his associates

Details: Navalny’s associate Ivan Zhdanov named the lawyers: Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser.

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The head of the legal department of Navalny’s team, Vyacheslav Gimadi, said that the searches were conducted in the framework of the case of participation in an extremist community. The lawyers are now the suspects.

Quote: “The main goal of these searches is to leave Alexei without legal help and contact with the world,” Navalny’s associate Georgy Alburov wrote.

Another supporter of the politician, Leonid Volkov, said that Navalny should soon be transferred to a special regime colony – “it’s uncertain where it is.” “This is a scary step towards his complete isolation,” he added.

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Navalny learned about the searches from lawyers during a court session on his lawsuit against the colony he’s been held in, and spoke about “the state of law and order in Russia.”

Navalny draws parallels with Soviet times, when “they persecuted not only political activists and turned them into political prisoners, but also their lawyers.”

Navalny also asked the court to postpone the meeting because he does “not really understand the prospects of organising his legal defence.” The meeting was postponed.

Background:

• In August 2023, the Moscow City Court sentenced Navalny to another 19 years in prison in the so-called case of creating an “extremist community.” This is the first case related to his political activities. Among the articles of the indictment, among others, “financing of extremism” and “rehabilitation of Nazism” were mentioned.
• A year earlier, in March 2022, Navalny was sentenced to nine years on charges of “fraud and contempt of court.” In another case, he was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison under the article on fraud and money laundering, which resulted in losses to the Russian division of the French cosmetics company Yves Rocher.

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