Russian prosecutors have demanded a 25-year prison sentence for Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza, Russian state-controlled news agency RIA Novosti said on April 6.
Kara-Murza is accused of treason, spreading “false information” about Russia’s military, and facilitating the activities of an “undesirable organization.”
In March 2022, he condemned Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine before the Arizona House of Representatives, calling Putin's administration "a regime of murderers."
He was detained in the spring of 2022 for speaking out against Russia’s war and was declared a so-called “foreign agent.”
According to his lawyer, Kara-Murza has lost 15 kilograms during his imprisonment.
On March 3, the U.S. imposed sanctions on six Russians who were involved in the arrest, prosecution, or abuse of Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza.
The sanctions, announced by the U.S. Treasury and State departments, target Russian nationals Elena Lenskaya, Andrei Zadachin, and Danila Mikheev for serious human rights abuses under the U.S. Global Magnitsky Act.
In a related move, the U.S. State Department imposed sanctions on Oleg Sviridenko, Russia’s deputy justice minister, Diana Mishchenko, the judge who ruled that Kara-Murza be arrested, and Ilya Kozlov, the judge who denied Kara-Murza’s appeal of the arrest ruling.
Asami Terajima
