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Three Navalny lawyers sentenced in Russia

The EU and Amnesty International have called for the release of three lawyers who represented the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny (pictured). 

On Friday (17 January), Vadim Kobzev, Alexey Liptser, and Igor Sergunin were sentenced to five and a half, five, and three and a half years in prison, respectively, for “participation in an extremist community”. 

An EU spokesperson condemned the sentences, describing them as “outrageous and absurd”, adding that they showed Russia’s “total disregard for the rule of law and the lack of an independent judiciary”.

The EU said that it strongly condemned the criminal prosecution of lawyers for performing their professional duties. 

‘Targeting lawyers’ 

Marie Struthers (Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia director) described the sentences as “a shameful attempt to silence those who dared to defend Aleksei Navalny and make his voice heard, even from behind bars.” 

“By targeting lawyers for merely doing their job, the Russian authorities are dismantling what remains of the right to legal defence and abusing what is a criminal-justice system only in name,” she added. 

Amnesty and the EU both called on the Russian authorities to “immediately and unconditionally” release the three lawyers.