RIGA, Latvia — Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny appeared at a court hearing without legal representation Tuesday after three of his lawyers were arrested on extremism charges and two others left the country.
Navalny’s court appearance, by video link from Penal Colony No. 6 where he is being held, highlighted the dire state the Russian legal system. Barred from attending court in person, Navalny was shown by video from a small room in a prison colony, but he had no attorney. At one point his sound cut out. Later, the entire video stream was lost.
Navalny learned of the arrest of the three lawyers Monday only from journalists, and Tuesday he found out that a fourth lawyer, Alexander Fedulov, had fled the country. A fifth, Olga Mikhailova, was not in Russia when the others were arrested, but her offices were raided and a search warrant was issued.
“I don’t understand what’s going on. My lawyer is not here. All the other lawyers are not here. Nobody is allowed to visit me. I am isolated and cut off from any information,” Navalny complained Tuesday, adding he was even denied the right to a radio.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, seen on a TV screen as he appears in a video link from prison on Aug. 23, has been left without legal representation after several of his lawyers were arrested and two others left the country. Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated Press
Navalny’s sound was abruptly switched off as he criticized Russian authorities, according to Russian media outlets attending the hearing. Toward the end of Tuesday’s court session, the video link was lost completely.
Officials claimed this was due to a power outage affecting the entire village of Melekhovo, where the prison is located in Vladimir region, about 150 miles east of Moscow. They said there was no information on when power would be restored.
Russian prison authorities even sued Navalny in one of several cases heard Tuesday, for the cost of gasoline for prison officials to attend the court, a claim the judge upheld.
Other cases Tuesday involved Navalny’s civil claims against prison authorities for their mistreatment of him – for example, denying him daily exercise.
Navalny, a political prisoner serving 30 years for charges including extremism based on his opposition to the Putin regime, repeatedly has been placed in constant solitary confinement in a brutal punishment cell, the harshest regime in the colony.
Until Friday, his legal team was his only link with the outside world. Russia’s detention of three lawyers pending trial on extremism charges has severed even that connection, in what Navalny’s team argues is a concerted state effort to crush his will and physically destroy him.
“What is happening now with Alexei’s lawyers is an attempt to deprive him not only of legal protection but also of his last connection with the outside world,” Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said Tuesday.
At Tuesday’s court session, Navalny described the arrest of the three lawyers, Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Liptser and Igor Sergunin, as “a spasm of this disgusting government,” and called on Russians to continue their opposition to President Vladimir Putin and his United Russia party.
Rights groups say the cases against Navalny are political, and he argues they were trumped up in retribution for his opposition to Putin as well as his Anti-Corruption Foundation’s exposés of gross corruption by Putin’s cronies.
Over the weekend, Navalny supporters in numerous cities around the world marked his 1,000th day in prison.
On Monday, when Fedulov failed to appear, Navalny asked Judge Dmitry Samoilov to Google him for news on his whereabouts. Navalny said he despaired of finding a new lawyer. “Given the fact that they are being arrested right and left, I think that no one will come to me,” he said.
Late Monday, Fedulov posted a message on Instagram calling the situation for Russian defense lawyers “strange.”
“The arrest of our colleagues who defended Navalny has made significant adjustments to the work of the defense lawyers who remain at large,” Fedulov posted, adding that he was forced to leave Russia due to the “current situation.”
The case against the three lawyers alleges that they were part of “an extremist community,” and it accuses them of conveying Navalny’s letters to the outside world, according to Russian media.
“I consider what is happening, of course, to be lawless,” Navalny told the court Tuesday. “I believe that my lawyers are being persecuted for their professional activities, and you are a witness to this,” he told Samoilov.
Russian lawyers associations have called on advocates across Russia to hold a strike Oct. 25 to 27 to protest the persecution of lawyers.
“Obviously, we are simply returning to the U.S.S.R. by leaps and bounds,” Navalny said. “We have all already seen this, and these are absolutely signs of the agony of this system.” He vowed that he and his team, now operating in exile from Vilnius, Lithuania, would never give up their opposition to Putin and his regime.
“It is not extremist. It fully complies with the constitution. We have the right to engage in political activity. I have the right to say quite frankly that yes, I am against Vladimir Putin. I am against his power. I will fight against it,” Navalny said.
At one point, Navalny passionately thanked his lawyers for working to defend him.
“I want to convey to all my defenders that, firstly, I am very grateful to them. They are true professionals,” he said. “Secondly, that I am, of course, very worried about them and their families, and I, of course, really want to tell them and their families to hang in there. They are great.”
Yarmysh said the team was working to try to restore his legal representation.
As bad as things are for Navalny, Yarmysh said they are about to get worse, when he is transferred to the harshest of Russian jails, a special-regime prison colony, reserved for the worst offenders, with restricted visits, parcels and exercise. No date on the transfer has been announced.
“He is soon to be transferred to a special-regime colony, which means that we will literally lose him,” she said. “During travel, he will be defenseless.”
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