A Russian court sentenced three lawyers of Aleksei Navalny to lengthy prison sentences for carrying correspondence from the late anti-corruption crusader out of prison, prompting his supporters at the hearing to erupt into chants of "heroes."
The court in the Vladimir region, just east of Moscow, convicted Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin, and Aleksei Liptser on January 17 of belonging to an "extremist group" for helping transport writings from Navalny that became the basis for his memoir, Patriot, which chronicled his life as President Vladimir Putin's most-vocal critic and as the country's most recognized political prisoner.
Kobzev received a prison sentence of 5 1/2 years, while Lipster was sentenced to 5 years and Sergunin, the only one to have admitted his guilt, to 3 1/2 years. All three have been in pretrial detention since October 2023.
"This is illegal political persecution," Pervy Odtel (First Department), a legal association in Russia that represents people accused of major crimes, said on Telegram.
"Defense is not complicity!" it said. "Lawyers are not partners or accomplices of their clients, they provide them with defense, the right to which is enshrined in the Constitution of Russia.... This is a gross violation of the very principles of law."
Those who managed to cram into the courtroom to hear the verdict -- the trial was held behind closed doors -- began chanting "Guys, you are heroes! We are proud of you!" as the three lawyers stood in a cage reserved for defendants.
Mediazona, meanwhile, reported that several journalists who had arrived to cover the hearing had been detained by police.
Arrest warrants have been issued to two other Navalny lawyers, Olga Mikhailova and Aleksandr Fedulov, on the same charges but they fled the country before they could be detained.
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The verdicts highlight the Kremlin's crackdown on civil society and any dissent inside the country -- a situation that has become even more brutal since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Navalny's groups and his organization were labeled as extremist and banned in Russia in June 2021.
Two months later, Navalny, who was already in prison on charges he and his supporters called political motivated, was found guilty of creating an extremist organization, with the Moscow City Court more than doubling his prison sentence to 19 years.
The charges against Navalny were widely seen as retribution for his efforts to expose what he called the pervasive lawlessness, corruption, and repression within Putin's political system.
Navalny was Russia's loudest opposition voice and galvanized huge anti-government rallies before he was jailed.
He died in prison in February 2024 under mysterious circumstances.
SEE ALSO: With Navalny Poisoning Confirmed, Focus Turns To With What And By WhomThe official autopsy report said that hypertension and other diseases caused a heartbeat disorder which led to Navalny's demise.
After Navalny's death, however, officials refused to hand the body over to his mother for more than a week, prompting accusations from his supporters that officials were trying to hide evidence of his murder.
In 2020, Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok-like nerve agent but survived after he was airlifted to Germany and treated there. Navalny accused Putin of ordering his poisoning then, which was denied by the Kremlin.