War in Ukraine: Russian opponent Vladimir Kara-Mourza sentenced to 25 years in prison

2023-04-17 17:35:19

The case is emblematic of the all-out repression in Russia. On Monday, a Moscow court sentenced opponent Vladimir Kara-Mourza to 25 years in prison on Monday. He was found guilty of three serious charges: “high treason”, spreading “false information” about the Russian army and illegal work for an “undesirable” organization.

He will have to serve his sentence in a penal colony with a severe regime, which implies stricter conditions of imprisonment. This is what the prosecution had requested. That is the heaviest cumulative sentence for these charges.

Handcuffed in the cage reserved for the defendants, the 41-year-old opponent welcomed the verdict with a smile, before urging his supporters to write to him in prison. One of his lawyers, Maria Eismont, announced that Vladimir Kara-Mourza was going to appeal. She denounces “gross violations of procedure” during the trial.

Vladimir Kara-Mourza, close to prominent opponent Boris Nemtsov assassinated in 2015, was one of the last Kremlin critics not to be behind bars or exiled abroad. He had criticized the power in public interventions in the West. The opponent has pleaded in the United States, Europe and Canada for the adoption of sanctions against Russian officials who are guilty of serious human rights violations, like the “Magnitsky law” passed in 2012.

” I’m proud of it “

The opponent also worked for the organization “Open Russia”, declared “undesirable” by the Russian authorities in 2017. The charge of spreading “false information” about the army is based on a amendment introduced after the outbreak of the offensive against Ukraine, which makes it possible to repress any information considered false by the authorities.

“Not only do I not repent of all this, but I am proud of it,” he said on April 10, according to comments published by journalist Alexei Venediktov.

“I also know that a day will come when the darkness that covers our country will dissipate,” added the longtime opponent of President Vladimir Putin. “When those who instigated and started this war (in Ukraine) will be called criminals, not those who tried to stop it. »

Poisoning

In pre-trial detention since April 2022, Vladimir Kara-Mourza almost died after being, according to him, poisoned twice, in 2015 and 2017. Assassination attempts which he attributes to Russian power. According to his lawyer Vadim Prokhorov, the opponent suffers from polyneuropathy and neuromuscular pathology, a consequence of the two poisonings.

In recent years, almost all Russian opponents have been sentenced to heavy prison terms or had to flee the country.

The best known, anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, is serving a nine-year prison sentence for fraud, a case widely seen as political. He was arrested in 2021 on his return to Russia, after recovering from poisoning of which he accuses the Kremlin.

His lawyer Vadim Kobzev was worried in early April that the 46-year-old opponent was suffering from an “unknown illness” for which he was left “without treatment” by the prison authorities.

Anger of Western leaders

The German government immediately denounced “with the greatest firmness” this condemnation. The British government also denounced “the politically motivated condemnation” of Vladimir Kara-Mourza, calling for his “immediate release”. Russian Ambassador Andrei Keline has been summoned.

“The United Kingdom will continue (…) to call for the immediate release of Mr. Kara-Mourza,” Foreign Minister James Cleverly said in a statement. The UN called for his release ‘without delay’ and the EU slammed a ‘scandalously harsh’ sentence which ‘once again demonstrates the misuse of the judiciary to pressure activists and any voices opposing the war illegitimate Russian aggression against Ukraine”.

A later, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its “dismay”. For Washington, the Russian opponent is the victim of an “intensified campaign of repression” by the Kremlin. “We renew our call for the release of Mr. Kara-Mourza, as well as that of the more than 400 political prisoners in Russia,” Vedant Patel, the spokesman for the US State Department, said in a statement.