A PACE hearing on sanctions against persons on the ‘Kara-Murza list’ was organised by the Committee of Legal Affairs and Human Rights in Paris today, in the context of the report being prepared by PACE rapporteur Eerik-Niiles Kross (Estonia, ALDE) on this topic.
The event heard from a number of participants, including Evgenia Kara-Murza, wife of the Russian opposition activist and Advocacy Coordinator at the Free Russia Foundation, and Bill Browder, Head of the Sergei Magnitsky Justice Campaign, United Kingdom.
In a June 2023 introductory memo for the Legal Affairs Committee, Mr Kross underlined that a strong case can, therefore, be made “to subject all the persons figuring on the ‘Kara-Murza list’ to targeted sanctions under the existing ‘Magnitsky laws’ in particular the relevant provisions enacted by the European Union.”
Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition figure, was unlawfully arrested in Moscow, initially charged with spreading false information about the Russian military after testifying about political prisoners in Russia before the Assembly’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights in April 2022. Subsequent charges included cooperating with a foreign NGO and treason. Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison after a closed-door trial on 17 April 2023. The persecution of Kara-Murza and other anti-war protesters in Russia is the focus of the legal committee’s upcoming report.
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