Journalists and human rights activists demand the release of Vladimir Kara-Murza

Independent journalists and human rights activists demand that the criminal prosecution of opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza be stopped and he be immediately released from pretrial detention. The statement was published on the website of the “Redkollegiya” journalistic award.

According to the authors of the appeal, “all the charges against Vladimir Kara-Murza are politically motivated, and the accusations of treason are especially cynical. It was Kara-Murza who made Western politicians realize that the Russian state is not to blame for the repressive actions and aggressive foreign policy.” the whole country”, but specific people”, the petition says.

Today, Kara-Murza is in a pre-trial detention center and is awaiting a monstrous in its cruelty, actually a life sentence, in fact, for words, words against the war.

The term demanded by the prosecutor – 25 years of deprivation of liberty – “is a vivid example of the return of today’s Russia to the practices of Stalinist political terror”, the statement in support of the oppositionist states. “Today, Kara-Murza is in a pre-trial detention center and is awaiting a monstrous in its cruelty, a life sentence, in fact, for words, words against the war,” the authors of the petition remind. They call on the Russian authorities to “judge murderers and criminals, not honest citizens who dare to think and speak the truth” and “stop Russia’s new slide towards Stalinism and a totalitarian system”.

More than 70 people have already signed the petition: journalists, human rights defenders, political scientists, activists, writers and opposition politicians. Among them are the editor-in-chief of “Dozhdya” Tikhon Dzyadko, the human rights activist Alexander Cherkasov, the writer Mikhail Zygar, Navalny’s associate Lyubov Sobol, the founder of “Sluzhba podderje” Ilya Krasilshchik, the editor-in-chief of “Mediazona” Sergey Smirnov.

• Vladimir Kara-Murza has been in pre-trial detention center since April 2022. In early March, the court extended the arrest for another six months. Three criminal cases have been initiated against the politician: about the so-called fakes about the Russian army, about high treason and about the implementation of the activities of an “undesirable organization” for working with “Open Russia”.
• During his stay in the pre-trial detention center, Vladimir Kara-Murza lost 17 kilograms of weight. In mid-March, he was unable to take part in one of the court sessions due to poor health. The chief neurologist of the UFSIN in Moscow diagnosed him with “polyneuropathy”. This diagnosis is included in the list of exclusions for a stay in a pre-trial detention center. However, the court refused to consider the medical documents and put the politician under house arrest.
• On April 6, the prosecutor requested 25 years of imprisonment for the opposition politician.