Скачать или смотреть Three lawyers of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny jailed

(17 Jan 2025)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4547604

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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Petushki, Russia - 17 January 2024
1. Mid of lawyers Igor Sergunin, Alexei Liptser and Vadim Kobzev in cage in courtroom
2. Sergunin, Liptser and Kobzev standing in cage as judge leaves after verdict, UPSOUND Supporters, no name given: “Guys, you are heroes! We are with you!”
3. Close up of Liptser and Kobzev
4. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Andrei Grivtsov, lawyer of Vadim Kobzev:
“Today a verdict was passed which in our opinion is illegal, unfounded and unfair. Unfortunately, this is so. We do not agree with this verdict, we cannot agree, I believe that we have a very strong legal position. ++ANGLE CHANGES++ A lawyer has a very difficult job in general, and when you defend your colleague, it is even more difficult, because you cannot help but project this situation onto yourself, because you are a lawyer and you understand what is happening.”
6. Sergunin, Liptser and Kobzev in court
STORYLINE:
Three lawyers who once represented the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny were jailed Friday in Russia as part of the Kremlin’s crackdown on dissent that has reached levels unseen since Soviet times. 

Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser were jailed from 3 1/2 to 5 1/2 years by a court in the town of Petushki, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Moscow. They were arrested in October 2023 on charges of involvement with extremist groups, as Navalny’s networks were deemed by authorities.

As the sentence was passed, supporters in the courtroom shouted, "Guys, you are heroes! We are with you!”

The case was widely seen as a way to increase pressure on the opposition to discourage defense lawyers from taking political cases.

At the time, Navalny was serving a 19-year prison term on several criminal convictions, including extremism. He died in a Russian prison camp in February 2023.

The independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported that Kobzev said in his final statement in court on Jan. 10 that “we are being tried for transmitting Navalny's thoughts to other people.”

Navalny's networks were deemed extremist following a 2021 ruling that outlawed his organizations — the Foundation for Fighting Corruption and a network of regional offices — as extremist groups.

That ruling, which exposed anyone involved with the organizations to prosecution, was condemned by Kremlin critics as politically motivated and designed to stifle Navalny’s activities.

According to Navalny’s allies, authorities accused the lawyers of using their position to pass information from him to his team.

Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and outspoken opponent of President Vladimir Putin, was arrested in 2021 upon his return from Germany, where he was recuperating from a nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin. He was ordered to serve 2 1/2 years in prison.

After two more trials, his sentence was extended to 19 years. He and his allies said the charges were politically motivated and accused the Kremlin of seeking to jail him for life.

In December 2023, Navalny was moved from a penal colony in the Vladimir region east of Moscow to one above the Arctic Circle, where he died in February at the age of 47 under still-unexplained circumstances. His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, and members of his team alleged he was killed on orders from the Kremlin. Officials have rejected the accusation.



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