PETUSHKI, Russia: Russia on Friday sentenced three lawyers who had defended Alexei Navalny to several years in prison for bringing messages from the late opposition leader from prison to the outside world.
The case, which comes amid a massive crackdown on dissent during the Ukraine offensive, has alarmed rights groups who fear Moscow will ramp up trials against legal representatives in addition to jailing their clients.
The Kremlin has sought to punish Navalny’s associates even after his unexplained death in an Arctic prison colony last February.
Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Liptser and Igor Sergunin were found guilty of participating in an “extremist organization” by a court in the town of Petushki.
Kobzev, the most high-profile member of Navalny’s legal team, was given five and a half years, while Liptser was handed five and Sergunin three and a half years.
They were almost the only people visiting Navalny in prison while he served his 19-year sentence.
Navalny, Putin’s main political opponent, communicated with the world by transmitting messages through his lawyers, which his team then published on social media.
Passing letters and messages through lawyers is a normal practice in Russian prisons.
Navalny’s exiled widow Yulia Navalnaya said the lawyers were “political prisoners and should be freed immediately.”
Navalny’s team has accused prison authorities of having secretly filmed Navalny’s meetings with his lawyers, which are meant to be confidential. His team published footage of the meetings on social media to support their claim.
The Netherlands said that pursuing the lawyers marked a “new low point in the already dire human rights situation” in Russia. Germany said that “even those meant to defend others before the law face harsh persecution.”
Britain’s foreign minister David Lammy posted on X: “Nearly a year on from Navalny’s death, the Russian authorities continue to crush any dissent...
“The UK and our partners are clear: the Kremlin must release all political prisoners.”
The men were sentenced after a closed-door trial in the town of Petushki — a town about 115 kilometers (72 miles) east of Moscow — near the Pokrov prison where Navalny was held before he was moved to a remote colony above the Arctic Circle.
“We are on trial for passing Navalny’s thoughts to other people,” Kobzev said in court last week, Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported.
A statement from the court said they had “used their status as lawyers while visiting convict Navalny... to ensure the regular transfer of information between the members of the extremist community, including those wanted and hiding outside the Russian Federation, and Navalny.”
It said this allowed Navalny to plan “crimes with an extremist character” from his maximum-security prison.
In his messages to the outside world, Navalny denounced the Kremlin’s Ukraine offensive as “criminal” and told supporters “not to give up.”
Navalny was himself a lawyer and was known for his tongue-and-cheek speeches in court, attempts to sue officials and long legal tirades defying prosecutors.
He had denounced the arrest of his lawyers in October 2023 as an attempt to further isolate him.
Kobzev last week compared Moscow’s current crackdown on dissent to Stalin-era mass repression.
“Eighty years have passed... and in the Petushki court, people are once again on trial for discrediting officials and the state agencies,” he said.
The OVD rights group that monitors political repression in Russia said Friday that the sentences showed Moscow was now intent on making defending political prisoners — a practice that is still allowed but becoming more difficult — outright dangerous.
“The authorities are now essentially outlawing the defense of politically persecuted people,” the group said.
“Pressure on defense lawyers risks destroying what little is left of the rule of law — the semblance of which the Russian authorities are still trying to maintain.”
The UIA International Lawyers Association has also warned the trial raises questions about the future of the profession in Russia.
The trial “sets a dangerous precedent” in “potentially deterring” lawyers from defending clients in sensitive cases, it said.
Last week, Navalnaya said Russia had refused to remove her husband from its list of terrorists and extremists despite his death.
She published a December letter from Russia’s financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring addressed to Navalny’s mother that said the late opposition leader was still being investigated for money laundering and “financing terrorism.”
“Why does Putin need this? Obviously not to stop Alexei from opening a bank account,” Navalnaya said.
“Putin is doing this to scare you.”
Russia sentences Navalny lawyers to years behind bars
https://arab.news/22wsa
Russia sentences Navalny lawyers to years behind bars
- Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Liptser and Igor Sergunin were found guilty of participating in an “extremist organization” by a court in the town of Petushki
- Kobzev, the most high-profile member of Navalny’s legal team, was given five and a half years
Palestinian under psychiatric evaluation after hitting rabbi in France
- The rabbi, Elie Lemmel, suffered a gash to his head from the chair that hit him as he was speaking with a companion in the cafe in the wealthy western Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine
PARIS: A Palestinian man arrested on Friday for throwing a chair at a rabbi in a Paris suburban cafe has been sent to hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, French authorities said.
The reason for the attack was unknown, but France’s main Jewish association condemned it as an antisemitic assault, and French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou blamed a “radicalization of public debate” against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Gaza.
The rabbi, Elie Lemmel, suffered a gash to his head from the chair that hit him as he was speaking with a companion in the cafe in the wealthy western Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.
The local prosecutors’ office said that it had opened a criminal investigation for assault possibly aggravated by religious motives.
It said the Palestinian, an irregular migrant living with temporary papers in Germany, was thought to be 28 years old and born in the Gaza city of Rafah.
It added that “he is undergoing a psychiatric examination requiring his forced hospitalization.”
France’s hard-line interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, said on X that the Palestinian “had no reason to be in France” and should be “severely punished and deported.”
The French Jewish association CRIF said on X that “this attack is yet another illustration of the toxic climate targeting French Jews.”
The French Jewish community, one of the largest in the world, has faced a number of attacks and desecrations of memorials since the Gaza war erupted on October 7, 2023.
French authorities are alert to antisemitic attacks, reports of which have been on the rise as the war in Gaza grinds on.
That conflict was triggered on October 7, 2023 when the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked parts of Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,218 people.
Israel retaliated with relentless bombardments and an aid blockade of the Gaza Strip. The ongoing military operation has resulted in the deaths of at least 54,677 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Surging violence in Sahel rings alarm bells
- “Extremist leaders declared in March their intent to intensify attacks against national armies to prevent a genocide against the Fulani community”
ABIDJAN: Terrorists have intensified their offensives in the Sahel region in recent weeks, carrying out bloody raids in Mali, incursions into major cities in Burkina Faso and inflicting heavy army losses in Niger.
The three Sahel states’ military juntas, who had pledged during the coups that brought them to power to make security a priority, are struggling to contain the advance of extremists, who are threatening more than ever neighboring countries on the west African coast.
The last few weeks have been particularly deadly in the Sahel.
Several hundred soldiers have been killed in various attacks.
“The global vision of regional terrorism is changing. There is an ideological aspect, but also an ethnic one,” said Lassina Diarra of the International Counter-Terrorism Academy in Jacqueville, Ivory Coast.
“Extremist leaders declared in March their intent to intensify attacks against national armies to prevent a genocide against the Fulani community.”
Military violence targeting civilians — particularly the Fulani, often singled out in the Sahel region and accused of feeding the extremists’ ranks — “has exacerbated grievances and played into extremists’ narratives,” said the Soufan Center think tank in a brief.
It also highlighted “a broader strategy to degrade public confidence in state forces, boost recruitment.”
“There is also a question of competition for territory,” Diarra added.
The capitals of Mali and Burkina Faso “are surrounded,” said Diarra.
For Gilles Yabi, founder of the West African think tank Wathi, it is important to remain cautious of “catastrophic” predictions.
The extremists’ “main advantage is their mobility and ability to move and blend with populations,” he said.
“In Burkina Faso, we cannot rule out a Somalia-like scenario, with a capital that resists while the rest of the country is out of control,” said a Western military source.
The juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger came to power through coups between 2020 and 2023 and are now united in a confederation, the Alliance of Sahel States.
Nepal ex-PM faces graft charge over land deal with Indian yoga guru’s firm
- A spokesperson for Patanjali in India denied any wrongdoing, saying it bought the land privately through due legal process
KATMANDU: Authorities in Nepal have charged former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal with corruption and demanded a million-dollar fine over the purchase of land by a firm owned by Indian yoga guru Baba Ramdev, a court official said on Friday.
Nepal, prime minister between 2009 and 2011, faces charges of allowing Patanjali Yogpeeth Nepal’s company to purchase more land than it was legally allowed to own for herb production, processing and a hospital in the Himalayan nation 15 years ago.
Both Nepal and Patanjali Yogpeeth deny any wrongdoing.
The 72-year-old Nepal heads a small opposition group in parliament and his United Socialist Party says the prosecution is an act of “political vendetta” against him.
FASTFACT
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), a corruption watchdog, alleged that some of the land, in Kavre district, was later allowed to be swapped with other land, or sold at a higher price, causing a loss to the state.
“I have not done anything illegal nor indulged in any corruption concerning Patanjali land deal causing any loss to the state,” Nepal told the Kantipur daily newspaper.
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority a corruption watchdog, alleged that some of the land, in Kavre district, was later allowed to be swapped with other land, or sold at a higher price, causing a loss to the state.
The allegations were set out in a charge sheet filed by the commission on Thursday at the Special Court in Katmandu.
The commission demanded Nepal be ordered to pay a fine of 185.85 million Nepali rupees ($1.35 million). If found guilty he could also be sentenced to up to 17 years in jail.
A spokesperson for Patanjali in India denied any wrongdoing, saying it bought the land privately through due legal process.
“Patanjali has not acquired any government land. It is unfair to drag our name in local political vendetta actions and proceedings,” S K Tijarawala, Patanjali’s spokesperson, told Reuters in a text message.
The commission also charged 92 others, including some former ministers and officials, some of whom are already dead.
Yaga Raj Regmi, information officer of the court, said Nepal would receive a formal court notice giving him 15 days in which to present himself at court and the hearing would start after that.
70-year-old Irish woman detained in Israel as son urges authorities to ‘send her home’
- Deirdre Murphy, an Irish activist originally from Cork and now based in Swansea, was arrested last week in the West Bank village of Khalet Al-Daba’a
LONDON: The son of a 70-year-old Irish woman detained by Israeli authorities has issued a plea for her release, citing urgent concerns over her health and wellbeing, The Independent newspaper reported on Friday.
Deirdre Murphy, an Irish activist originally from Cork and now based in Swansea, was arrested last week in the West Bank village of Khalet Al-Daba’a, which was recently demolished by Israeli bulldozers.
She remains in custody at the Givon Prison in Ramla after choosing to challenge a deportation order issued against her, The Independent added.
Her son, Dale Ryan, called on Israeli authorities to ensure that she is treated “with dignity and respect” and urged them to “send her home quickly,” adding that he is “really proud” of his mother.
“Israel is meant to be a civilized country, so you think (the detainees’) basic rights would have been met. But maybe that trust is a little bit misguided,” Ryan told The Independent.
Ryan said that Murphy suffers from bronchiectasis, a long-term condition that causes inflammation of the airways in the lungs.
“Stress can make symptoms worse as well,” he said. “So I am a little bit concerned. I just hope my mother’s in good health, but also my mother is quite a resilient person. I know she will gain strength from this.”
Murphy was detained alongside Swedish national Susanne Bjork, 48, who told the newspaper that the pair were denied access to a toilet during their initial detention.
“Who doesn’t allow a 70-year-old woman to go to the toilet? It’s certainly not something a democratic country would be doing,” Bjork said.
She has since been deported from Israel.
Israeli police did not respond to the allegation when approached by The Independent.
According to the International Solidarity Movement, Murphy has not had legal counsel since Monday. The group also alleges that she was brought to a deportation hearing on Wednesday without legal representation and without her lawyer being notified, despite her request.
The two women had been in Khalet Al-Daba’a filming and monitoring settler activity when they were approached by a settler in military uniform, who demanded to see their passports. Bjork said that they were complying with orders to leave the area when they were apprehended.
Authorities later accused the women of being in a restricted area and of failing to show ID, allegations the Swedish woman rejects.
“These are completely false accusations,” she said. “As soon as they told us we were not allowed in the area, we tried to leave. The soldiers had at first our passports, and then the police took our passports. We complied with all instructions.”
Video footage obtained by The Independent shows armed Israeli personnel holding the women’s passports. The video ends before they were detained by the settler.
The women were released briefly on Saturday evening and then detained again after refusing to leave the country voluntarily. Murphy opted to fight her deportation, while Bjork agreed to depart.
Bjork added that their treatment in custody stood in stark contrast to the treatment of Palestinians, describing seeing “two small boys who were blindfolded and zip-tied” brought into the police station.
“They looked about 13 or 14, these boys were obviously terrified. I mean, we were getting water and being fed and everything, so we’re very privileged in one way, because the way we were treated and the way Palestinians are treated is wildly different,” she said.
A spokesperson for Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed to The Independent that consular assistance is being provided in Murphy’s case.
Israeli police told the newspaper that the women had been detained on “suspicion of violating a military order” and were barred from the West Bank for 15 days.
“Over the weekend, police received a report from the security coordinator of the community of Ma’on regarding the presence of several suspicious individuals near a structure in the area of Khirbet Al-Dab’a, located within an active military firing zone near the community of Avigayil in the South Hebron Hills,” they said.
“Officers from the Hebron station, along with IDF forces from the subdistrict, arrived at the scene and identified the individuals as two foreign nationals, who were present within the closed military zone in violation of a standing military order. Information provided by the Judea and Samaria Central Investigations Unit (YAMAR) indicated that one of the suspects are known abroad for involvement in anti-Israel activity.
“Following the hearing on Sunday, it was determined that both individuals would be removed from the country,” the statement continued.
“One of the suspects agreed to the removal order and signed a declaration stating that she would not appeal the decision. The second notified authorities of her intent to file a petition against the decision.”
They confirmed Murphy will remain in custody until “her departure or the legal resolution of her appeal.”
Russia downed three drones targeting Moscow, mayor says
- Emergency services were working at the sites
MOSCOW: Russian air defense forces shot down three drones attempting to attack Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, the Russian capital’s mayor, said on Friday.
He did not provide further details about the incident but said emergency services were working at the sites where debris from the downed drones had fallen.
Separately, Russia’s aviation watchdog said that the Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports in the Moscow region had temporarily suspended operations to ensure flight safety.
