“The court (…) sentenced Vladimir Kara-Murza to 15 days in prison, which is the maximum penalty provided for in case of disobedience to the authorities,” he said.
The lawyer added that the arrest statement describes “inappropriate behavior on the part of Kara Murza, who changed direction, accelerated her pace and tried to escape when she saw the police officers.”
Kara Morza, 40, a former journalist close to the opposition Boris Nemtsov, was killed near the Kremlin in 2015, and Michal Khodorkovsky, a former oligarch turned critic of President Vladimir Putin.
The defense of the accused said that the reasons for the customers waiting for this opponent in front of his building were not disclosed on Monday evening, recalling that his client criticized the military intervention in Ukraine in recent days.
“It is clear that his political position made the authorities decide to arrest him,” he said.
The Russian authorities have strengthened their arsenal of laws against their critics and the dissemination of news about the “Russian military operation” in Ukraine, which the government considered false, can carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
Kara Morza, who still lives in Russia, said he was poisoned twice, in 2015 and 2017, because of his political views.
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