The court rejected the appeal against the verdict to Vladimir Kara-Murza

The First Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction (Moscow) upheld the sentence of the politician and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murze (recognized as a foreign agent in Russia), who was previously sentenced to 25 years in prison in a case of treason and spreading fake news about the army.

“The verdict of the Moscow City Court dated April 17, 2023 is left unchanged,” the appeal ruling says.

Thus, the court rejected the appeals of the defense and Kara-Murza himself against the verdict – it entered into force and is subject to execution.

The appeal hearing, as well as the process in the first instance, was held behind closed doors, since the materials of the criminal case are classified. Only the operative part of the ruling was read out by the court.

The defense indicated that they considered the sentence pronounced by Kara-Murze unlawful and that they insisted on his acquittal.

The State Prosecution asked the Court of Appeal to leave the verdict unchanged.

After the meeting, the politician’s lawyers Maria Eismont and Anna Stavitskaya said that the verdict and the appeal ruling would be appealed to the cassation instance.

His mother, Yabloko party leaders Nikolai Rybakov and Grigory Yavlinsky, as well as Western diplomats came to court to support Kara-Murza.

On April 17, the Moscow City Court sentenced Kara-Murza to 25 years in a strict regime colony and fined him 700,000 rubles. and banned him from journalism for seven years.

Kara-Murza was found guilty of treason (Article 275 of the Criminal Code), dissemination of deliberately false information about the actions of the Russian armed forces (clauses “d”, “d” part 2 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code), as well as cooperation with undesirable in Russia by an organization (part 1 of article 284.1 of the Criminal Code).

Kara-Murza, a Russian citizen and a British citizen, has been in custody since the spring of 2022. First, he was given an administrative arrest in the case of insubordination to the police, then he was charged with a criminal article about fakes about the army, then he was charged with cooperation with an organization undesirable in Russia – the Free Russia Foundation, as well as treason in connection with his speeches abroad .

Kara-Murza pleads not guilty to any of the charges and considers his persecution to be politically motivated. Kara-Murza’s defense stated that during his stay in the pre-trial detention center he was diagnosed with polyneuropathy, a disease that prevented him from serving his sentence.