17/04/2024 Session
All the persons directly responsible for and participating in the persecution and ill-treatment of Vladimir Kara-Murza* should be included in targeted sanctions lists, established under the “Magnitsky laws”, said PACE, meeting in plenary session.
A link to a list of these individuals, including prison staff, police officers, prosecutors and judges – involved, in their respective roles, in the abuse of the Russian justice system for the purpose of silencing Mr Kara-Murza – appears in the resolution adopted today by PACE, on the basis of the report by Eerik-Niils Kross (Estonia, ALDE).
PACE recalled that “Magnitsky laws”, such as those adopted by the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, many Central and Eastern European countries and the European Union, allow for imposing targeted sanctions against perpetrators of serious human rights violations who enjoy impunity in their own country.
The adopted resolution also states that Mr Kara-Murza’s supporters consider the particularly harsh sentence imposed on him (25 years in prison) “as retaliation for his long-standing vocal support for ‘Magnitsky laws’.”
In this context, PACE called on the EU and all states having laws on targeted sanctions to “include in their sanctions lists the persons directly responsible for the persecution and ill-treatment of Mr Kara-Murza”. It also invited all states which have not yet adopted “Magnitsky laws” to do so without further delay.
In addition, PACE called on the Russian authorities to release Mr Kara-Murza without delay and, in the meantime, to rectify his conditions of detention, and urged all states negotiating exchanges of prisoners with the Russian Federation to include Mr Kara-Murza in any such exchange.
--------------------- *Vladimir Kara-Murza, homme politique de l’opposition, journaliste, cinéaste documentariste, historien et écrivain russe, a été condamné le 17 avril 2023, à l’issue d’un procès à huis clos, à 25 ans d’emprisonnement pour « diffusion de fausses informations sur l’armée russe », « coopération avec une ONG étrangère indésirable », et « trahison ». Le rapport de M. Kross souligne que ses conditions de détention sont particulièrement dures et mettent gravement en danger sa vie et sa santé, compte tenu également des effets permanents de deux empoisonnements antérieurs qui ont failli le tuer. L’APCE a décerné à M. Kara-Murza le Prix Václav Havel des droits de l’homme 2022.