Comoros goes to polls in vote snubbed by opposition

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.”

NEW DELHI: The Gulf Cooperation Council looks forward to starting free trade negotiations with India this year, its secretary general said, as he outlined the bloc’s cooperation efforts at the Kochi Dialogue diplomacy conclave this week.

Themed “India’s Look West Policy in Action: People, Prosperity and Progress,” the forum was hosted on Jan. 16-17 by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and the Centre for Public Policy Research think tank in Kochi, southern Kerala state.

The event brought together government officials and business leaders from India, as well as delegates from the GCC countries — Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — along with diplomats from Australia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka.

GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Al-Budaiwi, who was one of the forum’s key speakers, highlighted the significance of India relations for the Gulf bloc and plans to move cooperation forward, including by engaging in long-awaited free trade agreement talks.

“Expanding free trade negotiations will pave the way for economic integration, removing trade barriers, expanding cooperation in digital economies, and transforming industries. I also hope that we hold our first round of FTA negotiation this year, 2025,” Al-Budaiwi told Kochi Dialogue participants.

Economic cooperation plays a crucial role in the GCC’s relations with India, with the value of annual trade exchanges reaching more than $160 billion last year.

Exports from GCC countries to India amount to about $90 billion, representing 71 percent of the bloc’s total exports.

“This underscores the significant importance of this cooperation,” the GCC secretary-general said.

“Trade between the two sides includes a diverse area of industrial and agricultural products, contributing to economic integration and creating opportunities for growth and market expansion.”

GCC investment in India exceeded $5.7 billion across various projects, which according to Al-Budaiwi reflected “promising opportunity” on both sides.

“These investments have enabled us to achieve significant economic benefits, including job creation and enhanced economic growth, making India, our friendly India, key trading partner for GCC countries,” he said.

So far, India has a free trade deal with only one GCC country, the UAE, with which it signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in 2022.

India has been pursuing a free trade pact with the whole bloc for the past two decades. A Framework Agreement on Economic Cooperation was signed in 2004 but two rounds of negotiations — in 2006 and 2008 — were inconclusive.

The agreement would give India access to a large and affluent market for its goods, as well as concessions on visas in a region that is a second home for about nine million Indian expat workers.