A lawyer for Russian opposition political activist Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. has filed request to prosecutors asking them to open a criminal case on suspicion of attempted murder.
In the request, which he posted on Facebook on February 22, Lawyer Vadim Prokhorov asks prosecutors to look into the recent suspicious illness that Kara-Murza believes might have been caused by poisoning.
Kara-Murza, 35, fell ill in Moscow on February 2 and spent several days in a medically induced coma. He was released from the hospital on February 19 and is undergoing rehabilitation abroad.
Kara-Murza's symptoms were almost identical to those he suffered in a near-fatal illness in 2015 that he believes was deliberate poisoning in retaliation for his political activities.
Russian prosecutors rejected a request to open a criminal case in connection with the 2015 incident.
Kara-Murza is a veteran liberal political activist and was a friend of Boris Nemtsov, a prominent opposition politician who was shot dead near the Kremlin in February 2015.
Kara-Murza lobbied actively in the United States for the passage of the Magnitsky Act, which imposes targeted sanctions on Russian officials believed to have been involved in human rights abuses.
