Moscow, Dec 17 (EFE).- The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office on Tuesday requested between five and six years in prison for three lawyers of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died under strange circumstances in an Arctic prison in February 2024.<\/p>
Igor Sergunin, Vadim Kobzev, and Alexei Liptser, Navalny’s lawyers, have been detained by the Russian judiciary since October, accused of participating in an extremist group, a crime punishable in Russia by two to six years in prison.<\/p>
“The prosecutor asked for 5 years and 11 months for K\u00f3bzer, 5 years and 10 months for Liptser, and 5 years and 6 months for Sergunin,” defense lawyer Andrei Grivtsov told the RIA Novosti news agency.<\/p>
In addition, prosecutors are demanding that they are banned from practicing law for five years after their release. <\/p>
The trial is being held behind closed doors at the Petushinksi court in Russia’s Vladimir region, about 100 kilometers east of Moscow.<\/p>
Prosecutors say Navalny’s lawyers have used their status as legal representatives to act as messengers between the Russian opposition figure and his supporters.<\/p>
Navalny’s other lawyer, Olga Mikhailova, left the country and was declared wanted by the Russian authorities.<\/p>
The leader’s family and supporters along with Western countries blame the Russian government for his death.<\/p>
Russian authorities have escalated a campaign against his supporters, allies, and family, even arresting journalists who covered his court hearings and adding his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, to a blacklist of “terrorists and extremists.” EFE<\/p>
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