Kara-Murz is serving a 25-year sentence in Siberia for treason and different expenses. (Representational)
Moscow:
Legal professionals representing jailed Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza stated Wednesday that they didn’t know the dissident’s precise location after twice being denied entry to the ability the place he was alleged to be held.
Rumours are swirling of an upcoming prisoner swap involving Russia and Western nations as quite a few high-profile prisoners, together with foreigners, have gone lacking from Russian prisons the place they’re serving lengthy phrases, in latest days.
“At this time a lawyer for Vladimir Kara-Murza for a second day working was not allowed to go to him in a jail hospital. The precise location of the political prisoner is unknown,” his lawyer Vadim Prokhorov wrote on Fb.
Kara-Murza, a 42-year-old joint Russian and British citizen, is serving a 25-year sentence in Siberia for treason and different expenses.
He suffers from a nerve illness and was moved to a jail hospital earlier this month for medical checks.
The dissident is being represented by a neighborhood lawyer within the Siberian metropolis of Omsk, the place he has been imprisoned.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the lawyer was instructed he couldn’t go to his consumer as a result of he was having a medical examination, Prokhorov stated.
Such a refusal of entry is a “gross violation”, Prokhorov stated.
Kara-Murza is because of have a public court docket listening to Thursday in Omsk over a authorized enchantment. His defence staff are demanding he be allowed to take part through video hyperlink.
“Courtroom workers and the administration of the jail hospital have already expressed doubts that tomorrow there shall be secure video hyperlink with Vladimir Kara-Murza,” Prokhorov wrote.
“However on the identical time, thus far they deny that he has been moved from the hospital,” Prokhorov wrote.
AFP contacted the Federal Jail Service, who stated they might not present data on a prisoner with out an official request to the penal colony.
Not less than seven Russian political prisoners have been moved from their penal colonies or jails in latest days, based on legal professionals and households.
A lawyer for jailed former US marine Paul Whelan, charged with espionage, was additionally not sure of his location on Wednesday.
Moscow and Washington have each confirmed there are ongoing negotiations over a swap involving US reporter Evan Gershkovich, sentenced to 16 years for espionage earlier this month in a fast-track trial slammed as a “sham” by the White Home.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
