PETUSHKI, Russia (AP) — The trial of three lawyers who once represented the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny began in Russia on Thursday.
Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser were arrested in October 2023 on charges of involvement in an extremist group, in a case widely seen at the time as a way to increase pressure on the Kremlin’s fiercest enemy. Their trial is taking place in a court in the town of Petushki, about 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) east of Moscow in the Vladimir region.
According to Navalny’s allies, authorities accused the lawyers of abusing their status as defense attorneys to pass on letters from the jailed politician to his team, acting as intermediaries between Navalny and what they called his “extremist group.”
Navalny’s organizations in Russia — the Foundation for Combating Corruption and an extensive network of regional offices — were banned and labeled as extremist groups in 2021, a move that ensured that everyone involved could be prosecuted.
Navalny was serving a 19-year prison sentence for various criminal convictions, including extremism charges stemming from a 2021 court ruling that labeled his organizations extremist. He was arrested in January 2021 and held in two different penal colonies in the Vladimir region until December 2023. In December, he was transferred to a remote prison above the Arctic Circle. He and his allies have dismissed all charges against him as politically motivated and accused the Kremlin of seeking to imprison him for life.
In February 2024, he died suddenly behind bars in what his team and widow Yulia Navalnaya believed was a Kremlin-ordered assassination. Officials have rejected the charges.
Russian authorities also put two of Navalny’s lawyers on a wanted list in February. One of them, Olga Mikhailova, who has defended the politician for a decade, said she had previously been charged in absentia with extremism after fleeing the country. The other, Alexander Fedulov, also said last year that he was no longer in Russia.
For many political prisoners in Russia, regular visits from lawyers, especially in remote areas, are a lifeline through which they can keep loved ones informed of their well-being, and report and combat abuse by prison officials.