Human Rights Watch (HRW) has blasted Russian accusations of high treason against prominent opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza as "the third baseless charge" since his detention six months ago.
The group described it as "a blatant attempt to quash any criticism of the Kremlin and deter contact with the international community."
“It is painfully obvious that the Kremlin sees Kara-Murza as a direct and imminent threat," HRW quoted its Europe and Central Asia director, Hugh Williamson, as saying. "These charges against him and his prolonged detention are a travesty of justice. Russian authorities should immediately and unconditionally free Kara-Murza and drop all charges against him.”
Russian media last week quoted unnamed law enforcement officials and sources as saying that the high treason charge against Kara-Murza stems from his alleged cooperation with organizations in a NATO member for many years. If convicted on the charge, the staunch opponent of the Kremlin faces up to 20 years in prison.
The 41-year-old politician was detained in April and sentenced to 15 days in jail on a charge of disobedience to police. He was later charged with spreading false information about the Russian Army while speaking to lawmakers in the U.S. state of Arizona.
Kara-Murza has rejected the charge, calling it politically motivated.
His lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov, reportedly said the treason charge stems from "open criticism" in speeches Kara-Murza gave at events in Lisbon, Helsinki, and Washington.
HRW noted Kara-Murza's friendship with slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov and two near-fatal poisonings in the past seven years that open-source sleuths Bellingcat have blamed on Russian security services.
Kara-Murza's arrest in April came amid a mounting crackdown by Russian authorities on opposition figures and any disagreement with the ongoing war in Ukraine that Moscow launched against its neighbor on February 24.
In August, Kara-Murza was additionally charged with carrying out activities of an undesirable organization for taking part in organizing a conference in Moscow last year to support political prisoners in Russia that was sponsored by the foreign-based Free Russia Foundation. That group has been recognized as "undesirable" in Russia.
The "undesirable organization" law, adopted in 2015, was part of a series of regulations pushed by the Kremlin that squeezed many nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations that received funding from foreign sources -- mainly from Europe and the United States.