A court in Moscow sentenced the opponent on Monday Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in prison for various chargesincluding that of “high treason”, in a context of repression in Russia at the height of conflict in Ukraine.

kara murzaclose to known adversary Boris Nemtsov killed in 2015, he was one of the last critical voices against the Kremlin that he was not in prison or exiled abroad. After a trial behind closed doors, the court announced that it had found Kara-Murza guilty of “high treason”. spreading “false information” about the Russian army and illegal work for an “undesirable” organization, said an AFP journalist.

For this he was sentenced to a cumulative sentence of 25 years imprisonment in a strict penal colony, implying stricter prison conditions. The prosecution had requested this conviction.

The 41-year-old opponent, dressed in a black T-shirt and gray jacket, smiled briefly as he heard the verdict from his court cell, and gestured to his supporters to write to him.

The UN, Germany and the UK criticized the verdict and called for the “immediate release” of the opponentwho also has British nationality.

One of his lawyers, Maria Eismon, announced that Kara-Murza would appeal and denounced “gross procedural violations” during the trial, Russian news agencies reported. In his final statements on April 10, the opponent said he was “proud” of his political commitment.

“Not only do I not regret that, but I am also proud,” he said, according to statements by journalist Alexei Venediktov.

“I also know that a day will come when the darkness that covers our country will disappear… when those who initiated and provoked this war (in Ukraine) will be branded as criminals, and not those who tried to stop,” he added.

prison or exile

In pre-trial detention since April 2022, Kara-Murza almost died after being poisoned twice, in 2015 and 2017, according to him on behalf of the Russian power. According to one of his lawyers, Vadim Prokhorov, the opponent suffers from polyneuropathy and neuromuscular pathologies as a result of these two poisonings.

According to the Russian news agency TASS, Kara-Murza, who had been declared a “foreign agent” by the authorities, was charged with “high treason” for criticizing the authorities in public interventions in Western countries.

The opponent urged the United States, Europe and Canada to introduce sanctions against Russian officials for the serious human rights abuses they committed.

Kara-Murza, the winner of the Council of Europe’s 2022 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, also worked for the Open Russia organization of former oligarch-in-exile and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whom Russian authorities called “undesirable” in 2017. was declared.

The accusation of spreading “false information” about the army is based on the law introduced after the start of the offensive against Ukraine, which makes it possible to suppress any information that the authorities consider incorrect.

Almost all opponents of Russia have been sentenced to heavy sentences in recent years or have had to leave the country.

The most famous of them, the anti-corruption activist Alexéi Navalni, was imprisoned in early 2021 and sentenced to nine years in prison for fraud. He was arrested on his return to Russia after suffering a poisoning he attributed to the Kremlin.

His lawyer Vadim Kobzev expressed concern in April about the situation of the 46-year-old opponent, who he says suffers from an “unknown disease” and is not receiving medical attention.