Oppositionist and Russian journalist Vladimir Kara-Murzáin pretrial detention for a year and accused of treason and two other criminal charges, was sentenced this Monday by a Russian court to 25 years in prison.
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“Impose Kara-Murzá a sentence of 25 years in prison to be served in a high-security prison with a subsequent restriction of freedom for one year and six months,” says the ruling, read by Judge Sergei Podoprigorov.
The conviction of the prominent dissident generated great expectation and gathered nearly a hundred journalists and diplomats at the Moscow Urban Court building.
In his last intervention, last week, Kara-Murzá assured that he does not regret “anything” and that he loves Russia.
“I am in jail for my political stance, for being against the war in Ukraine, for my long struggle against the dictatorship of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin“, affirmed the opponent, who said he felt proud that the opponent introduced him to politics Boris Nemtsov, assassinated in 2015 near the Kremlin.
The court also imposed a fine of 400,000 rubles. (about $5,000) to Kara-Murzá and banned him from practicing journalism for seven years.
The 41-year-old dissident was found guilty of high treason, a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison, spreading false information about the actions of the Russian Army in Ukraine and cooperation with an NGO declared undesirable by the Russian Justice.
The judge thus satisfied the demand of the Prosecutor’s Office that had requested 25 years in prison for Kara-Murzá.
The defense has already announced that it will appeal this ruling. “We believe that during the judicial process several rulings were made and we are going to appeal,” said the lawyer María Eismont, quoted by the TASS agency.
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According to the lawyer, Kara-Murzá himself reacted to the sentence saying that it proves his worth as a “citizen and politician”..
Several dozen independent journalists previously demanded the release of Kara-Murzá in a letter, in which they accuse the accusations as “unfounded” and “cynical”, and the judicial process opened against the opponent as political.
Kara-Murzá is a true patriot who in the first days of the war already spoke out against Russian aggression (…). But today in Russia, advocating for peace and the cessation of war is a crime.
“Kara-Murzá is a true patriot who in the first days of the war already spoke out against Russian aggression (…). But today in Russia advocating for peace and the cessation of war is a crime”, pointed out.
According to the US ambassador, Lynne Tracy, “the criminal prosecution of critics of the regime is a sign of weakness and not strength“.
For her part, the British ambassador in Moscow, Deborah Bronnertsaid she was dismayed by the ruling, which she related to “the brave statements” of Kara-Murza against intervention in Ukraine.
Recently, the lawyers of the opponent, considered a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, reported that Kara-Murzá had been diagnosed in prison with polyneuropathy in the lower extremities as a result of the two poisonings he suffered in 2015 and 2017.
According to the opponent’s defense, the disease he suffers from and which has progressed during the months spent in pretrial detention prevents him from serving his sentence.
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According to the Bellingcat investigative collective, Kara-Murzá had previously been followed by the same unit of the Federal Security Service that later poisoned opposition leader Alexéi Navalni, who is serving eight years in prison.
In October 2022, he was honored with the 2022 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize awarded by the Council of Europe.
EFE
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