A Russian court is to rule on Monday on the fate of opponent Vladimir Kara-Mourza, accused in particular of high treason, who faces 25 years in prison in a case emblematic of all-out repression in Russia.
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Vladimir Kara-Mourza, close to prominent opponent Boris Nemtsov assassinated in 2015, was one of the last Kremlin critics not to be behind bars or exiled abroad.
His trial is being held behind closed doors.
long time opponent
A long-time opponent of President Vladimir Putin, he is the target of three serious charges: "
high treason
", spreading "
false information
" about the Russian army and illegal work for an "
undesirable
" organization.
The prosecution requested 25 years in prison against this 41-year-old man, the heaviest cumulative sentence he faced for these charges.
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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 (in Ukraine) will be called criminals, not those who tried to stop
, “said the opponent again.
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 his lawyer Vadim Prokhorov, the opponent suffers from polyneuropathy and neuromuscular pathology, a consequence of the two poisonings.
In favor of Russian sanctions
According to the Russian news agency TASS, the opponent, who has been declared a "
foreign agent
" by the authorities, is accused of "
high treason
" for having criticized the power in public interventions in the West.
Vladimir Kara-Mourza has notably pleaded in the United States, Europe and Canada for the adoption of sanctions against Russian officials who are guilty of serious human rights violations, like the "Magnitsky law" passed
in
2012 The opponent also worked for the "
Open Russia
" organization of the ex-oligarch in exile and detractor of the Kremlin Mikhail Khodorkovsky, declared "
undesirable
" by the Russian authorities in 2017.
The charge of spreading “
false information
” about the army is based on an amendment introduced after the start of the offensive against Ukraine, which makes it possible to repress any information considered to be false by the authorities .
In recent years, almost all Russian opponents have been sentenced to heavy prison terms or had to flee the country.
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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.
His lawyer Vadim Kobzev was worried in early April that the 46-year-old opponent was suffering from an "
unknown illness
" for which he was left "
without treatment
" by the prison authorities.
