(Moscow) Three lawyers of imprisoned opponent Alexeï Navalny were targeted on Friday by searches by Russian security services and one of them was arrested, his team said, in a case for “extremism” punishable by heavy penalties .
These police raids are taking place at the homes in Russia of Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser, all of whom have defended Mr Navalny in the past.
One of them, Igor Sergunin, was arrested. “We cannot reach the other two,” wrote on X an ally in exile of the opponent, Maria Pevtchikh.
Another exiled collaborator of Alexei Navalny, Leonid Volkov, indicated on X that the lawyers were accused of being members of an “extremist community”, a crime punishable, according to him, by six years in prison.
“Everyone is already tired of using the expression “We’ve reached rock bottom”, but that’s precisely what just happened today,” reacted another supporter of the refugee opponent. foreigner, Georgiy Albourov.
“It’s as if searches were taking place on doctors treating the “wrong” patient. The main objective is to deprive Alexei (Navalny) of legal support and connection with the outside world,” he denounced on X.
Arrested in January 2021 upon his return from Germany where he was hospitalized after suffering poisoning, Alexeï Navalny has since been sentenced to heavy sentences, the last of which, in August, was 19 years in prison for “extremism”.
His organizations were banned in June 2021 also for “extremism” and most of their activists had to leave the country to avoid legal proceedings linked to these bans.
Imprisoned in a colony not far from Moscow, Alexei Navalny said at the end of September that he was to be transferred for a year to a cell with very strict conditions, where his interactions with the outside world would be even more limited.
Mr. Navalny communicates mainly via messages sent to his lawyers then published on social networks, in which he has continued to denounce the offensive in Ukraine in recent months and called on the Russians to “resist” the Kremlin.
“Lawyers do not play politics, they defend the accused,” reacted Friday on X the head of the legal department of the opponent’s team, Viatcheslav Guimadi.