Three lawyers for jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny were remanded in custody on Friday (October 13th) after raids by the Russian security services, his team announced, in a case of "extremism" that carries heavy sentences.
The raids took place at the homes in Russia of Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergenin and Alexei Liptser, all of whom have defended Navalny in the past. All three were arrested and remanded in custody until at least 13 December by the court in the evening.
"We've hit rock bottom"
An aide to Alexei Navalny who has gone abroad, Leonid Volkov, explained on X (ex-Twitter) that the lawyers were accused of being members of an "extremist community", a crime punishable, according to him, by six years in prison.
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Everyone is already tired of using the expression 'We have reached rock bottom' but this is precisely what has just happened today," said Georgi Alburov, another supporter of the opposition leader who has taken refuge outside Russia.
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It's as if searches were being carried out at the homes of doctors treating the "wrong" patient. The main objective is to deprive Alexei (Navalny) of legal support and connection with the outside world," he said on X.
Arrested in January 2021 on his return from Germany where he had been hospitalized after suffering poisoning, Alexei Navalny has since been sentenced to heavy sentences, the latest of which, in August, was sentenced to 19 years in prison for "extremism".
Navalny's organisations labelled 'extremist'
Its organisations had been banned in June 2021 also for "extremism" and most of their activists had to leave their country to avoid prosecution related to these bans.
Imprisoned not far from Moscow, Alexei Navalny said at the end of September that he should be transferred for a year to a cell with very strict conditions, where his interactions with the outside world would be even more limited.
Alexei Navalny communicates mainly via messages sent to his lawyers and then disseminated via social networks, in which he has continued to denounce the offensive in Ukraine in recent months and called on Russians to "resist" the Kremlin.
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Lawyers don't play politics, they defend the accused," the head of the legal department of the opposition's team, Vyacheslav Gimadi, told X-rated on Friday.