Press Release, 8.12.2022

Photo: Vladimir Kara-Murza at the Yabloko pre-election Congress in 2021 / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Today, the Moscow Basmanny Court will hold a hearing to extend the measure of restraint in the form of detention for politician and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza.

Vladimir Kara-Murza has been in jail since 22 April on the charges of spreading “fake news” about the Russian army. In July, another criminal case was initiated against Kara-Murza – “on the activities of an undesirable organisation”, and in October he was charged under the article “treason”. Yabloko considers the persecution of Vladimir Kara-Murza political and Yabloko insists that Vladimir is innocent.

Boris Vishnevsky, a Yabloko MP in the St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly, Emilia Slabunova, a Yabloko MP in the Legislative Assembly of Karelia, Artur Gaiduk, a Yabloko MP in the Pskov Regional Assembly, and Maxim Kruglov, head of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma, sent their personal guarantees to the Basmanny Court. The leader of the Pskov Yabloko Lev Shlosberg also vouched for Vladimir Kara-Murza.

Yabloko politicians ask the court to choose a personal guarantee for Kara-Murza as a measure of restraint instead of detention in a pre-trial detention centre and guarantee the court that until the end of the preliminary investigation and trial, Vladimir Kara-Murza will appear at the appointed time when summoned by the investigator, the public prosecutor and the court, and also will not interfere with criminal proceedings. In case of violation of obligations, each of the guarantors may be fined 10,000 roubles.

The court session will begin at 16:00 (Moscow time). The address: Kalanchevskaya 11. Vladimir Kara-Murza should be taken from the pre-trial detention centre for personal participation in the meeting.

UPD. The court rules out (in a closed trial) that Vladimir Kara-Murza will be kept in custody until 12 Feb.