The European Parliament has demanded the immediate release of Vladimir Kara-Murza
On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning the Russian court’s verdict against opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza. In the text, the verdict is described as politically motivated. With the same resolution, the deputies condemned the continued detention of Alexei Navalny in a strict regime colony.
Members of the European Parliament have demanded the immediate and unconditional release of Vladimir Kara-Murza. approved by them the document contains the same demand for Navalny, winner of the Sakharov Prize, and, as noted, for other political prisoners in Russia.
The resolution says MEPs condemn “the Russian regime’s escalating human rights violations and the country’s continued crackdown on government critics, human rights activists and independent journalists”. Separately, the European Parliament is said to be calling on the UN Human Rights Council to immediately investigate “acts of inhumane detention, torture and murder of political opponents” in Russia.
After being arrested in April last year for spreading so-called “fakes” about the Russian military, Russian authorities in August accused opposition politician and journalist Kara-Murza of collaborating with an undesirable organisation. Later, in October, a criminal case of treason was brought against him. On the basis of these three charges, the Moscow City Court on April 17 sentenced his opponent to 25 years in a strict regime colony.
The human rights community and representatives of Western countries have described the criminal prosecution of Vladimir Kara-Murza as political. After the ambassadors of the United States, Great Britain and Canada at the Moscow City Court on the day of the verdict made comments in favor of the convict, demanding his immediate release, the three diplomats were summoned to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs foreign. There they expressed a strong protest, pointing to gross interference in the internal affairs of Russia.
The British ambassador, of whom Kara-Murza has Russian nationality, Deborah Bronnert, described the condemnation of the opponent as a response to his “bold speech against the invasion of Ukraine by Russia”.
Nearly 20,000 Russians have been detained over anti-war protests since the Kremlin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to human rights project OVD-Info.
Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. was chairman of the board of directors of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom, deputy chairman of the People’s Freedom Party and board member of the democratic movement Solidarity. Managed the Free Russia Foundation, collaborated with many Russian and foreign media. He secured passage in the United States of the Magnitsky Act, which provides for a ban on entry into the United States and a freeze on the assets of Russian government officials responsible for gross human rights violations.
Commenting on the verdict, the opponent said: “25 years is the highest score I could get for what I did, what I believe in as a citizen, as a patriot , as a politician.
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