Navalny's three lawyers sentenced to prison in Russia

Three lawyers for the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny were found guilty by a Russian court on Friday of belonging to an extremist group. They were sentenced to prison in remote areas, where in some cases the convicts must perform hard labor, Reuters news agency reported. 

The Russian court sentenced Igor Sergunin to 3 years, Alexei Lipster to 5 years and Vadim Kobzev to 5 years in prison in a closed-door hearing in the Vladimir region east of Moscow. They were arrested in October 2023 and added to the official list of "terrorists and extremists" that same month. 

Human rights activists have stated that the persecution of lawyers defending people who speak out against the authorities and the war in Ukraine has crossed a new line in the suppression of dissent. 
Navalny, who died suddenly in an Arctic prison in February last year, was convicted of extremism and other charges, which he denied. His wife, Yulia Navalnaya, has described the lawyers as political prisoners and stressed that they were arrested simply for doing their job. 

The Kremlin has stated that it does not comment on individual court cases, but authorities have branded Navalny and his supporters as traitors backed by the West to destabilize Russia. 
Although imprisoned, Navalny, through lawyers, was able to post on social media and often file lawsuits about his treatment in prison, using hearings as chances to speak out against the government and the war. 

The lawyers have been accused of enabling Navalny to function as the leader of what the Russian government called an extremist group, even from inside prison, by publishing his messages to the world.