It is an emblematic trial of the all-out repression in Russia against those who oppose the Kremlin’s offensive in Ukraine. A Moscow court on Monday sentenced opponent Vladimir Kara-Mourza to 25 years in prison after an emblematic trial. This relative of the leading opponent Boris Nemtsov assassinated in 2015, was one of the last critics of the Kremlin not to be behind bars or exiled abroad.
After a closed trial, the court announced that it found Vladimir Kara-Murza guilty of “high treason”, spreading “false information” about the Russian army and illegal work for an organization “undesirable”, according to an AFP journalist. As a result, he was sentenced to a cumulative term of 25 years in a harsh regime penal colony, which implies stricter prison conditions. Either what the prosecution had requested.
“I don’t repent”
Handcuffed in the cage reserved for the defendants, dressed in blue jeans, a black T-shirt and a gray jacket, the 41-year-old opponent welcomed the verdict with a smile, before ordering, by gestures, his supporters to write to him in prison. Quoted by Russian news agencies, one of his lawyers, Maria Eismont, announced that Vladimir Kara-Mourza was going to appeal, denouncing “gross violations of procedure” during the trial.
In his last statements on April 10, Vladimir Kara-Mourza said he was “proud” of his political commitment: “Not only do I not repent of all this, but I am proud of it”, he said 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 (…) when those who instigated and started this war [en Ukraine] will be called criminals, not those who tried to arrest him,” the opponent said.
Poisoned twice
In pre-trial detention since April 2022, Vladimir Kara-Mourza almost died after being, according to him, poisoned twice, in 2015 and 2017, from assassination attempts which he attributes to Russian power. According to one of his lawyers, Vadim Prokhorov, the opponent suffers from polyneuropathy and neuromuscular pathology, a consequence of the two poisonings. According to the Russian news agency TASS, the opponent, who was declared a “foreign agent” by the authorities, was accused of “high treason” for having criticized the power in public interventions in the West.
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.