Alexei Lipster, Igor Sergunin, and Vadim Kobzev were arrested in October 2023 and subsequently placed on the list of “extremists.” Since their arrest, their pre-trial detention has been extended multiple times.
The lawyers are accused of passing information to Navalny while he was imprisoned in Russia from January 2021 until his death on February 16 under suspicious circumstances. This information allegedly allowed him to “plan, prepare (…) and commit extremist crimes” from his prison cell, according to investigators.
The trial is being held in Petushki, in the Vladimir region, east of Moscow, where Navalny, a staunch opponent of President Putin, was once incarcerated.
В Петушинском районном суде Владимирской области началось рассмотрение дела в отношении адвокатов Алексея Навального, сообщает RusNews.
— Спектр (@spektronline) September 12, 2024
Трое адвокатов Навального – Вадим Кобзев, Игорь Сергунин и Алексей Липцер – находятся в СИЗО по делу об «участии в экстремистской… pic.twitter.com/7At0RRrT8r
“The court session has been declared open,” announced Judge Yulia Silova around 11:00 a.m. local time.
During the trial, 46-year-old Sergunin reportedly pleaded guilty, according to the independent Russian outlet Mediazona, in contrast to the other two defendants.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, dissent in Russia has been severely repressed. Opposition activists’ lawyers, once rarely imprisoned, have faced increased surveillance and threats. In the past two years, several lawyers have fled the country to avoid arrest.
Сначала Вадима Кобзева, Алексея Липцера и Игоря Сергунина по очереди заводили в зал, чтобы каждый из них мог тет-а-тет поговорить со своими защитниками.
— Медиазона (@mediazzzona) September 12, 2024
Теперь все трое обвиняемых адвокатов Навального вместе в зале. Кобзев и Липцер улыбаясь переговариваются, приветствуют… pic.twitter.com/ALeoKdiLg0
Navalny was arrested in Moscow in January 2021 upon returning from Germany, where he had been treated after being poisoned—an act he blamed on the Kremlin. He was subsequently sentenced to multiple lengthy prison terms, including 19 years in August 2023 for “extremism.”
Known for his anti-corruption investigations, Navalny communicated mainly through his lawyers, sending messages from prison that condemned the attack on Ukraine and urged Russians to “resist.”
Exclusive: Criminal case against Alexei Navalny’s lawyers filed at court near prison in Pokrov, where the politician was first held post-return to Russia.
— Mediazona (@mediazona_en) June 12, 2024
Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Liptser and Igor Sergunin accused of aiding the “extremist community” by passing Navalny’s letters
1/2 pic.twitter.com/aG1dZl40hk
His organization, the Anti-Corruption Foundation, was also labeled “extremist” in Russia in 2021. The circumstances surrounding his death in an Arctic penal colony remain unclear. Many of Navalny’s former associates, now in exile, are working with his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, who has vowed to continue her husband’s work.
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