2023-10-14 05:27:00
UpdateThree lawyers of jailed Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny were remanded in custody on Friday after raids by Russian security services. Earlier it became known that house searches took place in a case of “extremism”, which carries heavy penalties.
The searches took place at the homes of Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser, all three of whom have defended Navalny. They were remanded in custody in the early evening until at least December 13.
A refugee aide to opposition leader Leonid Volkov said on X, formerly Twitter, that the lawyers were accused of being members of an “extremist community,” a crime he said carries a penalty of six years in prison.
“The main goal is to deprive Alexei Navalny of legal support and ties with the outside world,” Georgi Alburov, another refugee employee, criticized on X.
Alexei Navalny was arrested in January 2021 upon his return to Russia after being poisoned. He has since been sentenced to harsh sentences, the most recent of which, in August, was 19 years in prison for “extremism”.
His organizations were also banned in June 2021 for “extremism” and most of their activists have had to leave the country to avoid prosecution.
Communication
Navalny, who is being held in a staff camp not far from Moscow, said in late September that he would be transferred for a year to a cell with very strict conditions, where his interaction with the outside world would be even more limited.
Navalny communicates mainly through messages he sends to his lawyers and then publishes on his social networks, in which he continues to denounce the offensive in Ukraine in recent months and calls on Russians to “resist” the Kremlin.
“Lawyers don’t do politics, they defend the accused,” was the response from Vyacheslav Guimadi, head of the legal department of Navalny’s team, to X on Friday.
Archive image. Olga Mikhailova and Vadim Kobzev, two of the lawyers on Navalny’s team. © ANP / EPA
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