Three of Navalny's lawyers arrested in Russia
Three lawyers who previously defended the Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny were detained and their apartments searched this morning.
Source: Radio Liberty, citing Navalny and his associates
Details: Navalny's associate Ivan Zhdanov named the lawyers as Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser.
Vyacheslav Gimadi, head of Navalny's legal team, said that the searches were conducted as part of an investigation into their involvement in an extremist community. The lawyers are now regarded as suspects.
Quote: "The main purpose of these searches is to leave Alexei without legal help and contact with the outside world," Navalny's associate Georgy Alburov wrote.
Leonid Volkov, another of the politician’s supporters, said that Navalny is shortly due to be transferred to a special regime colony "in an unknown location". "This is a terrifying step towards his complete isolation," he added.
Navalny himself learned of the searches of his lawyers’ homes during a court hearing in his lawsuit against the penal colony where he is presently held.
He spoke out about "the state of law and order in Russia", drawing parallels with Soviet times, when "it wasn’t only political activists who were persecuted and turned into political prisoners, but also their lawyers".
Navalny also asked the court to adjourn the hearing because he "does not really understand the prospects of organising his legal defence". The hearing has been adjourned.
Background:
- In August 2023, the Moscow City Court sentenced Navalny to a further 19 years in prison for allegedly founding an "extremist organisation." This is the first case related to his political activities. The "financing of extremism" and "rehabilitation of Nazism" were mentioned among the charges in the indictment.
- A year earlier, in March 2022, Navalny was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment on charges of "fraud and contempt of court". In another case, he was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for fraud and money laundering, which resulted in losses to the Russian division of the French cosmetics company Yves Rocher.
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