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00:00It's a verdict that has prompted alarm among rights groups.
00:03Three lawyers for late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny
00:07have been charged with taking part in an extremist organisation.
00:11Alexei Liptse was sentenced to five years in a penal colony,
00:15Igor Serganin, the only one to admit the charge, received three and a half years,
00:20and Vadim Kubzev five and a half years.
00:23After the sentences were announced, a supporter spoke up.
00:30Kubzev's lawyer strongly condemned the court's decision.
00:35Today a verdict was passed which in our opinion is illegal, unfounded and unfair.
00:43During their trial behind closed doors, Russian authorities accused the lawyers
00:47of passing messages between Navalny, who died suddenly in a prison colony last year,
00:52in the outside world.
00:54The men's lawyers argued that the evidence against them was an illegal invasion of privacy.
01:00I have never had anything like this in my career.
01:04This is a precedent.
01:05And such a precedent can only affect the institution of legal representation.
01:13An anti-corruption campaigner and critic of Vladimir Putin,
01:16Navalny himself had been convicted of extremism.
01:20His widow voiced her support for the lawyers in the wake of Friday's verdict.
01:24Vadim, Alexei and Igor are political prisoners and must be released immediately.
01:32Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022,
01:35there has been a widespread clampdown against dissenting voices.
01:39The vast majority of activists and independent journalists have fled the country.