Vladimir Kara-Mourza, longtime opponent of Vladimir Putin, sentenced to 25 years in prison

2023-04-17 11:00:49

Vladimir Kara-Mourza, October 10, 2022, during a hearing in a Moscow court. NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP

He was one of the last public opponents of the Kremlin not behind bars or a refugee abroad. A Moscow court on Monday (April 17) sentenced opponent Vladimir Kara-Mourza to 25 years in prison. “strict regime colony” for several counts, including that of “high treason”, in a context of all-out repression in Russia, accentuated since February 24, 2022, the first day of the invasion of Ukraine.

At the end of the trial, which was held behind closed doors, the court announced that it found Mr. Kara-Mourza guilty of “high treason”, “public dissemination of deliberately false information about the Russian army”. and “conduct of activities of a foreign or international non-governmental organization whose activities have been declared undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation”, according to information from a journalist from Agence France-Presse. A long-time opponent of President Vladimir Putin, the 41-year-old was sentenced to the cumulative sentence required by the prosecution, the heaviest he faced for these charges.

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Arrested in April for denouncing the invasion of Ukraine

The Russian dissident was arrested in Moscow in April 2022 for speaking out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Not only do I not repent of any of this, but I am proud of it”, he launched in his last statements. He also said he was looking forward to the day “where those who started and started this war, and not those who tried to stop it, will be recognized as criminals”.

Mr. Kara-Mourza, close to the leading opponent Boris Nemtsov, assassinated in 2015, was one of the last critics of the Kremlin still present on Russian soil and not to be imprisoned.

His trial was held behind closed doors as Russia passed a law criminalizing the “public dissemination of deliberately false information about the Russian military” shortly after sending troops to Ukraine. Authorities used the law to stifle criticism of what the Kremlin calls “special military operation”.

The World with AFP