The Moscow City Court sentenced opponent and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza** to 25 years in a strict-regime colony for treason, false information about the Russian military and undesirable activities. Exactly as much as the prosecution requested, according to Kommersant. The hearings were held behind closed doors due to the “secret” stamp.
In addition to the term, the opponent must also pay a fine of 400,000 rubles. And the court banned him from doing journalism for seven years.
Vladimir Kira-Murza** has been held in a remand center since April last year on a charge of knowingly spreading false information. The investigation claims that during a speech in the United States, he falsely accused the Russian military of bombing residential buildings, hospitals and schools.
Later, two more cases were brought against him, which in October were consolidated into one proceeding. One of them was related to the participation of a politician in “a foreign or international NGO, in respect of which it was decided to recognize it as undesirable”. And the heaviest thing – a case of treason – was brought against Kara-Murza ** for his speeches at the NATO Assembly, at the Helsinki Committee in Oslo and in the United States.
The opponent was the first to be tried under the new edition’s treason article. He suggests that not only transferring secret information to another country, but also assisting other countries or organizations in activities against Russia’s security can be considered treason.
Kira-Murza ** is a longtime member of the opposition movement in Russia, the son of the famous journalist and opponent Vladimir Kara-Murza Sr.
Known among other things for the fact that in 2015 and 2017 he was admitted to hospital with signs of poisoning, where he was diagnosed with acute kidney failure and put on drug sleep. The opponent was tested by a French specialist, who found a number of dangerous substances in his blood, significantly exceeding the permissible concentration. Later, he was again hospitalized for poisoning and plunged into an artificial coma.
After the poisoning of the most publicized and famous opponent Alexeï Navalny*, foreign “investigators” also remembered this episode in the biography of Kara-Murza**, linking the two cases.
- included in the list of people “for whom there is information about their involvement in extremist activities
** — included in the list of persons exercising the functions of a foreign agent
Read the Latest Government Politics News on The Eastern Herald.
