Kara-Murz is serving a 25-year sentence in Siberia for treason and other charges. (Actor)
Moscow:
Lawyers representing jailed Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza said in a fourth round that they did not know the opposition figure's exact location, after being twice denied access to facilities where he should be held.
There are rumours of a future prisoner trade involving Russia and Western countries, as several high-profile prisoners, including foreigners, have disappeared from Russian prisons while serving long sentences in recent days.
“Here, for the second day in a row, Vladimir Kara-Murza’s lawyers were not allowed to visit the prison hospital. The exact location of the political prisoner is unknown,” his lawyer Vadim Prokhorov said on Facebook.
Kara-Murza, a 42-year-old Russian and British citizen, is serving a 25-year sentence in Siberia for treason and other charges.
He was suffering from a nervous condition and was taken to the prison hospital for medical examinations only.
The dissident is represented by a local lawyer in the Siberian city of Omsk, where he is in prison.
Prokhorov said that on the third and fourth days, the lawyer was informed that he would not be able to visit his client because he was undergoing a medical examination.
Such a request for access is a “serious violation,” Prokhorov said.
Kara-Murza will hold a public hearing at the 5th Exhibition in Omsk regarding the legal appeal. His defense team requires that he participate via video.
“Court officials and the prison hospital administration expressed doubts that her security had a government video link with Vladimir Kara-Murza,” Prokhorov said.
“But at the same time, we now deny that he was taken from the hospital,” Prokhorov said.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons contacted AFP and said it could not provide information about an inmate without a formal request from the penal colony.
At least seven Russian political prisoners have been transferred to penal colonies or prisons in the past few days, as well as lawyers and relatives.
The lawyer for former US Marine Paul Whelan, who is accused of espionage, is also not sure where he is in the fourth exhibit.
Moscow and Washington will confirm that negotiations are underway over a case involving North American reporter Ivan Gershkovich, who is serving a 16-year sentence for espionage, which will not start this month, in an accelerated trial that Casa Branca has called a “farce.”
(Except that this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
