LONDON, Sept 12 (Askume) – A Russian judge on Thursday ordered the trial of three lawyers for the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny to be held behind closed doors to journalists and the public over what could be considered a provocation, an independent news website reported.
Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexey Lipsor were detained last October and charged with belonging to “extremist” groups, which carries a prison sentence of up to six years. The three have been held in pre-trial detention since then and in November were added to Russia’s list of “terrorists and extremists.”
Navalny, who died under mysterious circumstances in Arctic exile in February, was himself convicted of extremism and other charges and his political movement, the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), was banned.
At the trial, which began on Thursday in Moscow’s Eastern District Court, state prosecutors asked Judge Yulia Shilova to end the proceedings, citing a letter from Russia’s Center for Counter-Extremism (Center E).
According to the independent news website Mediazona, the letter says Navalny’s staff outside Russia may be involved in influencing witnesses and other aspects of the trial. All of Navalny’s top aides live outside Russia.
Navalny’s spokesman did not immediately respond to a Askume request for comment.
Russian authorities have described Navalny and his supporters as Western-backed extremists who seek to destabilise Russia. His ally and wife Yulia Navalnaya, who took over after her husband’s death, said he was very close to the president.Fight for a free, democratic Russia without Vladimir Putin .
Navalny’s defense lawyers on Thursday protested the judge’s decision, saying ending the trial would violate basic principles of legal transparency.
“Disclosure is an unbreakable principle of justice,” Mediazona quoted Kobzev’s lawyer, Andrei Grivtsov, as saying.
Grivtsov said information on the case had been made public during the pre-trial period and that “there was no record of a security breach.”
In Russia, trials for serious crimes such as treason are often conducted behind closed doors, and the acquittal rate is close to zero.
In June, a judge presiding over the trial of two prominent Russian theater figuresJournalists and observers were barred from attending the event, citing alleged threats against some participants .
The director and playwright were later sentenced to six years in prison for “justifying terrorism”, which independent observers condemned as politicisation.
