Alexei Navalny’s former lawyers were sentenced to terms of 3.5 to 5.5 years in a penal colony on charges of participation in an “extremist organisation”

Judge Yulia Shilova sentenced Vadim Kobzev to 5.5 years in prison, Aleksei Liptser to 5 years, and Igor Sergunin, who pleaded guilty, to 3.5 years. All were banned from working as lawyers for another three years after their release. Two other Navalny’s lawyers, Olga Mikhailova and Alexander Fedulov, were forced to leave the Russian Federation and arrested in absentia.

The prosecutor requested even tougher terms, and in 2023, Rosfinmonitoring placed all three on the terrorist list.

According to the investigation, the lawyers passed Navalny’s letters from the colony, allegedly helping him to continue “leading an extremist community”. However, Navalny himself and his associates said that meetings with lawyers in the colony were illegally recorded by hidden cameras, which grossly violates the right to defence.

This is a verdict not only on lawyers, but also on the very idea of the right to defence in Russia.