Kara-Murza has visibly criticized Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. He was arrested in April last year.
Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza has been sentenced to 25 years in prison, reports the news agencies AFP and Reuters. The length of the sentence is the same as what the Russian prosecutor had demanded for the man.
Kara-Murza has visibly criticized Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. He was arrested in April last year.
He was convicted of treason, spreading “false” information about the Russian military, and joining an “undesirable organization.”
The Moscow Times magazine said in March that Kara-Murza’s health has deteriorated in prison, and his hearing on the charges could not be held at that time.
Kara-Murza has also criticized the president Vladimir Putin. Many other critics of Putin have been killed or imprisoned, or have fled the country.
HS interviewed Kara-Murzaa in Lithuania in 2017. At that time, he estimated that there are even more people in Russia who no longer believe in the future of Russia ruled by Putin.
“Despite all the authoritarianism, pressure and intimidation of Putin’s regime, there are more and more people in Russia who understand the current regime as a dead end. They understand that Russia has no future with these authoritarian and kleptocratic rulers,” Kaza-Murza told HS.
Read more:Putin’s critic survived another poisoning attempt and tells HS about his experiences after waking up from a coma
Several On Monday, the parties condemned Kara-Murza’s sentence. Among other things, according to Reuters, Britain has invited Russia’s ambassador to Britain for an interview.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk demands the immediate release of Kara-Murza. According to Türk, it is quite obvious that the charges against the opposition politician are related to his right to exercise freedom of speech.
“Nobody’s freedom of speech should be restricted like that, and I demand the Russian authorities to release Kara-Murza immediately.”
Germany also condemned the sentence. The government’s spokesperson described the verdict as illustrating “how shocking the level of repression is now in Russia”.
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