17/01/2025 (Agence Europe) – On Friday 17 January, the spokesman for the European External Action Service described the verdict against three of Alexei Navalny’s defence lawyers, Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Liptser and Igor Sergunin, who were sentenced to five-and-a-half, five, and three-and-a-half years’ imprisonment respectively for ‘participation in an extremist community’, as an “outrageous and absurd politically motivated verdict”. This verdict “further demonstrates Russia’s total disregard for the Rule of law and the lack of an independent judiciary”, he explained in a statement. The spokesman stressed that the EU strongly condemned the criminal prosecution of lawyers in the exercise of their professional duties and attempts to further weaken the legal community in Russia. “Russian authorities must immediately stop the unfounded accelerating repression”, he warned. (CG)