by Mick the Ram

Three lawyers who were arrested in October 2023 for “their role in assisting” Alexei Navalny have received jail sentences after a trial held behind closed doors in the Vladimir region, east of Moscow.

Igor Sergunin, Alexei Liptser and Vadim Kobzev had been accused of enabling Mr Navalny to continue to function as the leader of an “extremist group”, even from behind bars, by passing his messages to the outside world.  

The trio were found guilty of belonging to the same extremist group and were sentenced respectively to three and a half, five and five and a half years.

Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei who was a staunch Vladimir Putin critic slammed the verdict and demanded that the men be released immediately.

Human rights activists remarked how the prosecution of lawyers who defend people speaking out against the authorities and the war in Ukraine, crosses a new threshold in the repression of dissent under the Russian president.

Mr Navalny had been held in Russian penal colonies north of the Arctic Circle and 1,900km (1,200 miles) north-east of Moscow, until his death which authorities put down to “sudden death syndrome”.

“Heroes”

At the trial behind closed doors in Petushki, the accusation was that the men had “used their status” to relay messages between Navalny and his colleagues.

When the judge passed sentence a woman shouted: “Boys, you are heroes” and other supporters applauded the three of them, who had been standing together in a barred cage throughout proceedings.

Lawyers of lawyers slam sentences

Igor Sergunin was the only one of the three to admit the charge, according to independent reports, and was given a lighter sentence of three-and-a-half years.

Alexei Liptser was jailed for five years in a penal colony, after which his lawyer, Andrei Orlov, insisted that whilst the court decision was “very sad” they would not be letting things rest, vowing: “We are not going to stop; we are going to keep moving”.

Vadim Kobzev was given five-and-a-half years, and his lawyer, Andrei Grivtsov, said the evidence against them amounted to “illegal invasion of privacy”.

New threshold

Human Rights group OVD-Info released a statement accusing the prosecution of “crossing a new threshold in the repression of dissent under Putin”.

They observed: “Pressure on defence lawyers risks destroying the little that remains of the rule of law, whose appearance the Russian authorities are still trying to maintain.”

They went on to suggest that the lawyers had been prosecuted “only because the letter of the law still matters to them and they did not leave the man alone with the repressive machine”.

Just doing their jobs

Another of Navalny’s lawyers, Olga Mikhailova, who no longer is in Russia, said the sentences were “brutal and absurd” and that the men had been punished for honestly carrying out “their duties, their professional and moral position”.

Ms Mikhailova, whose offices were raided in 2023, added she herself has also been accused of extremism in absentia.

No response from Kremlin

Mr Navalny, who died suddenly at the age of 47 in an Arctic penal colony in February last year, was convicted of extremism and other charges, all of which he said were manufactured by authorities to silence his criticism of Putin.

The Kremlin’s reaction to the sentencing of the men was predictable, stating that it does not comment on individual court cases; although it is well documented that authorities had long sought to portray Mr Navalny and his supporters as Western-backed traitors, seeking to destabilise Russia.