“Of course, we will continue our work as lawyers…” A few minutes after the heavy sentence pronounced against three lawyers of Alexeï Navalny, Friday January 17, by a court located some 100 kilometers from Moscow, Roustam Jane, one of the defenders of the condemned, told the Monde his desire to defy the risks of “judicial matryoshka”, a new stage of repression against any critical voice in Russia.
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Alexeï Navalny, the most famous opponent of Vladimir Putin's Kremlin, mysteriously died in prison on February 16, 2024, had been prosecuted for extremism; in turn, his lawyers Igor Sergunin, Alexei Liptser and Vadim Kobzev, found guilty of belonging to an extremist group, have just been sentenced to prison terms of three and a half, five and five and a half years; the chain could continue.
-This is the first time that lawyers have been convicted of extremism in the context of their work. “They are innocent. And I do my job”insists Mr. Jane, one of Mr. Liptser's defenders, reached by telephone. For him as for his colleagues who, during more than twenty hearings in the narrow court of Petushki, a small town northeast of Moscow, defended Mr. Navalny's three lawyers, it must still be possible to defend the opposition before the courts: “Everyone has the right to protection”. As the trial was held behind closed doors, they are prohibited from saying more. But, they have already announced that they want to appeal.
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