Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza was transferred from Moscow pre-trial detention center No. 5 “Vodnik” to a colony pending the consideration of an appeal against the verdict, according to which he was sentenced to 25 years in prison in a case of military “fakes” and treason. This was announced by the politician’s lawyer Vadim Prokhorov.
Prokhorov learned that Kara-Murza was being transported before cassation from the words of lawyers Anna Stavitskaya and Maria Eismont. According to his defender, it is unknown which colony the oppositionist is being taken to.
The oppositionist himself managed to write to the lawyers: “Everything is “in the best traditions,” on his birthday.”
In turn, Kara-Murza’s wife Evgenia confirmedthat the politician was transported, noting that this was done “in complete secrecy, in an unknown direction and before his birthday (on September 7, the oppositionist will turn 42 years old – NV), so that, God forbid, he would not receive words of support from all over the world on that day “.
Politician Vladimir Kara-Murza received one of the harshest sentences handed down to political prisoners in modern Russia. The Moscow City Court sentenced him to 25 years in a maximum security colony on charges of treason, military “fakes” and participation in an “undesirable organization.” On charges of terrorism and mass murder, Russian courts handed down more lenient sentences.
Kara-Murza did not admit guilt. In his last word, the politician noted that he was in prison for his political views. “The last word usually asks for an acquittal. For a person who has not committed a crime, the only legal verdict would be an acquittal. But I do not ask this court for anything. I know my verdict. I knew it a year ago, when I saw it in the mirror of people in black uniforms and black masks running after my car. This is now the price for silence in Russia,” he emphasized.
Authorities in the US, EU, UK and Canada have imposed sanctions against government officials, security forces and judges involved in the prosecution of Kara-Murza.
Vladimir Kara-Murza achieved the adoption in the United States of the “Magnitsky Act,” which provides for a ban on entry into the United States and the freezing of assets of representatives of the Russian government responsible for gross violations of human rights. The politician was chairman of the board of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom, vice-president of the Free Russia Foundation and coordinator of the Open Russia Foundation (organizations of the same name were considered “undesirable” in the country). He was also involved in preparing and promoting the very first personal sanctions against Russian officials in the West. Vladimir Kara-Murza survived two assassination attempts.
