Human Rights Watch has urged Russian authorities to “immediately and unconditionally release” Vladimir Kara-Murza, the Kremlin critic who faces 25 years in jail on charges he denies.
Kara-Murza, 41, is facing charges of treason and spreading false information about the Russian military in Ukraine.
A journalist and a prominent government opponent who twice survived poisonings he blamed on the Kremlin, Kara-Murza has been behind bars since his arrest a year ago.
The Moscow City Court is scheduled to deliver a verdict in the trial on April 17.
“Vladimir Kara-Murza has been detained, prosecuted, and is facing a monstrous prison term for no more than raising his voice and elevating the voices of others in Russia who disagree with the Kremlin, its war in Ukraine, and its escalating repression within Russia,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Kremlin’s persecution of Kara-Murza, which is part of its efforts to demoralize and quash civic activism, should be condemned in the strongest possible terms.”
Kara-Murza was arrested on April 11, 2022, on the charge of spreading “false information” about the Russian Armed Forces. In August, Russian authorities added the charge of involvement in an “undesirable” foreign organization, and in October they added the treason charge for his public criticism of the Russian authorities in the international arena.
On March 3, Washington designated six people, including three judges, for sanctions due to their role in Kara-Murza’s detention.
In his final statement to court on April 10, Kara-Murza said the level of opaqueness about the charges against him surpassed the trials of Soviet dissidents in the 1960s and 1970s, and the language used against him was reminiscent of the 1930s, when Soviet citizens were arrested on fabricated charges and put on show trials.
Kara-Murza said he was jailed for his political views, “for speaking out against the war in Ukraine, for many years of struggle against (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s dictatorship.”
“Not only do I not repent any of this, I am proud of it,” he said, adding that he looks forward to a day “when those who kindled and unleashed this war, and not those who tried to stop it, are recognized as criminals.”
Russia adopted a law criminalizing spreading “false information” about its military shortly after it sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022.