Three lawyers who represented the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have been sentenced to jail terms ranging up to five-and-a-half years for their involvement with an "extremist organization."
Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin, and Alexei Liptser were detained in October 2023 as Russian authorities increased pressure on Navalny, who passed away unexpectedly last February in an Arctic prison.
The trial, held in Petushki, east of Moscow, was conducted in secret, with the lawyers accused of "using their status" to communicate messages between Navalny and his associates.
Navalny likened the case to Soviet-era practices and criticized it as a reflection of "the state of rule of law in Russia."
Of the three, Igor Sergunin was the only one to confess, resulting in a reduced sentence of three-and-a-half years. Alexei Liptser received five years in a penal colony, and Vadim Kobzev was sentenced to five-and-a-half years.
Kobzev's attorney, Andrei Grivtsov, argued that the evidence presented constituted an unlawful breach of privacy, stating that "They're not allowed to eavesdrop on meetings between a lawyer and a client in a penal colony in principle - there's a direct legislative ban," as reported by BBC Russian.
Alexei Liptser's lawyer, Andrei Orlov, referred to the court ruling as "very sad," adding, "But we are not going to stop just yet. We are going to keep moving."
The trial took place near the Pokrov penal colony where Navalny was initially held upon returning to Russia in January 2021, following a nerve agent attack he attributed to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Amnesty International criticized the Russian authorities for targeting the lawyers, noting that "the Russian authorities are dismantling what remains of the right to legal defence."
Yulia Navalnaya labeled the three lawyers as "political prisoners" who should be released immediately.
Olga Mikhailova, another of Navalny's lawyers who has left Russia, condemned the sentences as "brutal and absurd," maintaining that the men were penalized for fulfilling "their duties, their professional and moral position."
The allegations against the lawyers state that they were part of Navalny's "extremist community," meeting with him and sharing information.
Following their arrest, Navalny expressed during a court hearing his isolation and lack of legal representation before being transferred to a remote penal colony, where he passed away at the age of 47. His widow rejected the official cause of death as untrue.