Moscow (AFP) – Three lawyers of the imprisoned Russian opponent Alexei Navalny were placed in preventive detention this Friday after the security services searched their homes, the anti-corruption activist’s team announced.
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The lawyers Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexey Liptser were placed in preventive detention, where they must remain at least until December 13.
The searches were carried out within the framework of an investigation for “participation in extremist activities,” said the head of the legal department of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, Viacheslav Gimadi.
In June 2021, Russian courts described Navalny’s organizations, one of the biggest voices of the Russian opposition in the last decade, as “extremist.”
Navalny mobilized huge anti-government demonstrations in the country, before being imprisoned in 2021 on fraud charges.
Kobzev, one of the lawyers, was due to appear in court on Friday to represent Navalny in a lawsuit he filed against his prison sentence.
“That’s why all this is being done, so that Alexei is left without legal protection, without connection to the outside world,” said Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh.
“And to send a message to other lawyers that it is dangerous to defend him and other political prisoners,” he added.
The opponent was sentenced in August to 19 years in prison for “extremism” and is detained in a maximum security prison near Moscow.
Since his arrest, he has communicated with the outside world through messages sent to his lawyers, in which he continues to denounce the Kremlin’s policy and its offensive in Ukraine.
Repression against dissenting voices increased after the start of the Russian offensive against Ukraine in February 2022 and drove the majority of the beleaguered opposition movement into exile.
© 2023 AFP
2023-10-14 09:54:21
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