Russia sentences Navalny lawyers to several years in prison

Russia on Friday sentenced three lawyers who had defended Alexei Navalny to several years in prison for bringing messages from the late opposition leader from prison to the outside world.

The case, which comes amid a widespread crackdown on dissent during the Ukraine offensive, has alarmed rights groups that fear Moscow will ramp up trials against legal representatives in addition to jailing their clients.

The Kremlin has sought to punish Navalny’s associates even after his unexplained death in an Arctic prison colony last February.

Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Liptser and Igor Sergunin were found guilty of participating in an “extremist organization” by a court in the town of Petushki.

Kobzev, the most high-profile member of Navalny’s legal team, was sentenced to five and a half years, while Liptser was handed five years and Sergunin three and a half years.

The sentences drew outrage in the West.

The trio were almost the only people visiting Navalny in prison while he served his 19-year sentence.

Navalny, Putin’s main political opponent, communicated with the world by transmitting messages through his lawyers, which his team then published on social media.

Passing letters and messages through lawyers is a normal practice in Russian prisons.

Navalny’s exiled widow Yulia Navalnaya said the lawyers were “political prisoners and should be freed immediately.”