A Russian court is expected to deliver a verdict in the trial of journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who faces 25 years in prison on charges of treason and spreading false information, which he denies. Rights groups say the trial is an attempt by the Kremlin to persecute one of its most prominent critics.
The Moscow City Court is scheduled to deliver a verdict in the trial on April 17, just over a year after Kara-Murza, who twice nearly died after what he says were deliberate poisoning attacks, was arrested on the charge of spreading “false information” about Russia’s 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 the 41-year-old’s public criticism of the Russian authorities in the international arena.
The trial was delayed last month after his lawyer told the court his client’s health had “significantly deteriorated.” A certificate from the medical unit of Kara-Murza’s detention facility stated he was being treated for polyneuropathy, which he says is a result of the poisonings.
“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,” Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a report ahead of the verdict.
“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,” he added.
In his final statement to court on April 10, Kara-Murza, who Amnesty International has designated a “prisoner of conscience,” said the level of opaqueness about the charges against him surpassed the trials of Soviet dissidents in the 1960s and ’70s, 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, a long-standing proponent of democratic values and a vocal opponent of the current Russian government, 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 of 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.
Kara-Murza is the latest in a string of opposition activists, reporters, and others who have been arrested and prosecuted under the legislation amid a growing Kremlin crackdown on civil society.
Kara-Murza was a key advocate for the U.S. Magnitsky Act, which sets out sanctions for human rights violators in Russia. He has also called for sanctions to be imposed on culpable Russian officials.
On March 3, the United States designated six people, including three judges, for sanctions due to their role in Kara-Murza’s detention.
The late U.S. Senator John McCain was a proponent of Kara-Murza’s efforts, and Kara-Murza served as a pallbearer at McCain’s funeral in 2018.
