Russia: Vladimir Kara-Murza sentenced to 25 years in prison

Europe 1 with AFP 16:03 pm, April 17, 2023

A Moscow court on Monday sentenced opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in prison, a sentence of rare severity that illustrates Russia's relentless crackdown on critics of the offensive in Ukraine. The sentence handed down to Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was one of the last major critics of the Kremlin not to be behind bars or exiled abroad, is the heaviest imposed on an opponent in the country's recent history.

The opponent guilty of "high treason"

After a closed trial, the court announced that it found the opponent guilty of "high treason", spreading "false information" about the Russian army and illegal work for an "undesirable" organization, according to an AFP journalist. As a result, he was sentenced to a cumulative sentence of 25 years' imprisonment in a harsh-regime penal colony, which implies stricter conditions of incarceration. Or what the Public Prosecutor's Office had requested.

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Handcuffed in the cage allotted to the accused, and dressed in blue jeans, a black T-shirt and a gray jacket, the 41-year-old opponent welcomed the verdict with a smile, before urging his supporters to write to him in prison.

The France says she is "appalled"

This condemnation immediately sparked outrage in the West. Washington denounced an "intensified campaign of repression" and a "politically motivated" sentence, with the European Union castigating a "scandalously severe" sentence and an "abusive use of judicial power". The France said it was "appalled", Germany denouncing with "the greatest firmness" a judgment aimed at "preventing any critical voice", while London and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights demanded the immediate release of Vladimir Kara-Murza.

One of his lawyers, Maria Eismont, announced that Kara-Mourza would appeal. "It's a terrible verdict, but it illustrates the great value of Vladimir's action," Eismont said, adding that his client remained in a "valiant" mood and thought "sincerely to have acted for the good of Russia." His mother, Elena, denounced after the verdict a "brazen demonstration of injustice" and "absurd".

During his last statements on 10th April Vladimir Kara-Murza said he was "proud" of his political commitment, according to comments published by journalist Alexey Venediktov. "I also know that a day will come when the darkness that covers our country will dissipate (...) when those who instigated and started this war (in Ukraine) will be called criminals, not those who tried to stop it," he said.

Kara-Mourza says he was poisoned twice

In pre-trial detention since April 2022, Vladimir Kara-Murza almost died after being, according to him, poisoned twice, in 2015 and 2017, assassination attempts that he attributes to the Russian authorities. According to one of his lawyers, Vadim Prokhorov, the opponent suffers from polyneuropathy and neuromuscular pathology, a consequence of both poisonings. His supporters are concerned about his health worsening as a result of his detention.

According to the Russian news agency TASS, the opponent, who was declared a "foreign agent" by the authorities, was accused of "high treason" for criticizing the government in public interventions in the West. Vladimir Kara-Murza has notably advocated in the United States, Europe and Canada for the adoption of sanctions against Russian officials guilty of serious human rights violations, such as the "Magnitsky Law" passed in 2012.

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Almost all opponents convicted in recent years

The opponent also worked for the Open Russia organization of the exiled former oligarch and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, declared "undesirable" by the Russian authorities in 2017. The charge of spreading "false information" about the army is based on an amendment introduced after the launch of the offensive against Ukraine, which makes it possible to repress any information considered false by the authorities.

In recent years, almost all Russian opponents have been sentenced to long prison terms or have had to flee the country. The best known, anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, is serving a nine-year sentence of deprivation of liberty for fraud, a case widely seen as political. He was arrested in 2021 upon his return to Russia, after recovering from poisoning he accuses the Kremlin.