MOSCOW, April 18, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Russia on Monday sentenced Kremlin
critic Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in a high security prison on treason
and other charges for criticising the Ukraine offensive.

There was immediate condemnation of the verdict both from his supporters and
internationally, and calls for Kara-Murza to be released.

The sentence handed down to him was the longest given to a Russian opposition
figure in recent years.

A Moscow court found the 41-year-old guilty of treason, spreading "false"
information about the Russian army, and links to an "undesirable
organisation," after a closed-door trial.

Kara-Murza appeared in a cage, wearing blue jeans, a black T-shirt and grey
blazer, an AFP journalist said. He smiled and gestured to his supporters to
write to him in prison.

"A quarter of a century is an 'A+' for your courage, consistency and honesty
in your year-long work. I am infinitely proud of you, my love, and I'm always
by your side," his wife Evgenia Kara-Murza wrote on Twitter.

"This is a terrible verdict, but it is a very high testament to Vladimir's
work," his lawyer Maria Eismont said, adding that her client would appeal and
"believes he has done sincere good for Russia".

In his last words in court last week, Kara-Murza said he stood by his
political statements, including against Russia's offensive in Ukraine.

"I subscribe to every word that I have said, that I am incriminated for
today," Kara-Murza said in comments published by veteran journalist Alexei
Venediktov.

- 'Proud of it' -

"Not only do I not repent for any of it -- I am proud of it," he added.

Kara-Murza has over the years pleaded in the United States and Europe for the
adoption of individual sanctions against Russian officials.

He contributed to the adoption of the Magnitsky Act, a US bill intending to
punish Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian tax lawyer
Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009.

The United States slammed Russia's "escalating campaign of repression."

Britain urged for Kara-Murza's immediate release, but the Russian foreign
ministry called London's response "direct interference in the internal
affairs of Russia", branding the British ambassador to Moscow's remarks
"unacceptable".

The UN also called for the Kremlin critic's release.

"Kara-Murza was tried on charges that appear related to the legitimate
exercise of his right to freedom of opinion, expression, and association," UN
human rights chief Volker Turk said.

The European Union condemned the "outrageously harsh court decision" while
Germany criticised "the shocking level" of repression.

Russia's Memorial human rights group said: "This is not the first unjust and
criminal conviction in modern Russia, but even in the general context it
stands out for its obvious illegality."

Kara-Murza was detained in April last year on charges of spreading what the
authorities consider false information about the Russian army during an
address to the lower house of the Arizona legislature a month earlier.

In August 2022, Kara-Murza was accused of being affiliated with an
"undesirable organisation" for participating in a conference in support of
political prisoners.

- Worsening health -

Last October, he was charged with treason over remarks critical of Moscow
made at three public events abroad, his lawyer told the state-run TASS news
agency.

Since launching the offensive in Ukraine in February last year, Russia has
clamped down on critics.

"Kara-Murza's jailing is a new illustration of the campaign of repression
Russian authorities are conducting against voices critical of power and its
war of aggression against Ukraine", a French foreign ministry spokeswoman
said.

She added that Paris was also "concerned about Mr Kara-Murza's deteriorating
health."

Kara-Murza suffers from a nerve condition called polyneuropathy which his
lawyers say was due to two poisoning attempts in 2015 and 2017.

The condition has worsened in prison, and he was too unwell to attend some of
his hearings, his lawyers said.

Kara-Murza says he was poisoned twice because of his political activities but
continued to spend long periods in Russia.

The Western-educated journalist was a close associate of opposition leader
Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead near the Kremlin in 2015, and Mikhail
Khodorkovsky, a former oligarch turned critic of Russian President Vladimir
Putin.

Almost all Putin's major opponents have either fled the country or are in
jail.

Putin's vocal domestic critic Alexei Navalny was arrested in January 2021
upon returning from Germany, where he was recovering from a poison attack
that he blamed on the Kremlin.

From prison, Navalny said he considered the verdict "unlawful, shameless and
simply fascist."