Vladimir Kara-Murza, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most high-profile and fiercest critics, has been sentenced to 25 years in jail after being found guilty of treason and other offences, following a secret trial in Moscow.
The 41-year-old pro-democracy activist was arrested in April last year after he described Mr Putin's administration as corrupt, kleptocratic, authoritarian and a "regime of murderers" during an interview on CNN.
He was charged with spreading false information about the Russian military, following the introduction of new laws that criminalised dissent against Mr Putin's war in Ukraine.
Later Mr Kara-Murza was charged with treason relating to three speeches he had given at public events in Lisbon, Helsinki and Washington DC that criticised the Kremlin and accused Russia of committing war crimes against Ukraine's civilian population.
Following the verdict, Mr Kaza-Murza defiantly called out a famous Russian opposition slogan.
"Russia will be free, tell everyone," he said while handcuffed and confined to a steel and glass cage.
His wife Evgenia praised him for his bravery, saying via social media: "A quarter of a century is an 'A+' for your courage, consistency and honesty in your years-long work. I am infinitely proud of you, my love, and I'm always by your side."
The US, the EU and the UK all condemned the verdict. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said the sentence was "another blow to the rule of law and civic space in the Russian Federation".
It is believed the severity of the sentence reflects the Kremlin's anger at Mr Kara-Murza's international advocacy for Magnitsky Acts that have led to widespread sanctions against Mr Putin's regime and its cronies in a number of countries including Australia.
'I'm very concerned this is a death sentence'
There are fears the father of three could die in prison. In 2015 and 2017 he twice survived poisoning attempts that left him in a coma with multiple organ failure.
In 2021, Bellingcat reported that members of Russia's security services implicated in the poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny had also tailed Mr Kara-Murza before he was hospitalised.
His lawyers say he now suffers from polyneuropathy, a serious nerve disorder that was brought on by the poisonings, and that he has lost 17 kilograms while in detention awaiting trial.
Bill Browder, who has travelled the world with Mr Kara-Murza lobbying political leaders to introduce Magnitsky Acts, has told the ABC he holds grave fears for his close friend.
"I'm very concerned that this is a death sentence," he said.
"I don't think he'll survive three years, let alone 25 years."
Mr Browder said his friend's health deteriorated when he was recently placed in solitary confinement.
"After six days, he lost the sensation [and] feeling in his feet. He started to lose the sensation in his arm. And what you have going on here is a very serious nerve damage that's not being treated. I believe that if they continue to treat him this way, he won't survive."
Mr Kara-Murza has been a journalist, a historian and a politician. He was a close friend and ally of former opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, a Putin critic who was murdered in 2015. Mr Browder says his friend is a man of immense courage and intellect.
"I can't even describe the feeling I have today. It's just so bad because this man has the kind of bravery that I don't think anyone in the world can even appreciate," he said.
"To go back, to put yourself in harm's way, to potentially lose your life and your freedom for your beliefs is something that very few people would be willing to do.
"He has done it because he's a patriot who actually believes that Russia could be a better place and he deserves all of our support."
Kara-Murza refuses to repent for his activism
During his trial, Kara-Murza compared his prosecution with Josef Stalin's show trials of the 1930s when political opponents were purged.
In his final statement to the court, which was released to the media by his lawyers, he rejected any suggestion he should show remorse for what he had done.
"I'm in jail for my political views. For speaking out against the war in Ukraine. For many years of struggle against Vladimir Putin's dictatorship. For facilitating the adoption of personal international sanctions under the Magnitsky Act against human rights violators."
"Not only do I not repent of any of this, I am proud of it. I am proud that Boris Nemtsov brought me into politics. And I hope that he is not ashamed of me. I subscribe to every word that I have spoken and every word of which I have been accused by this court."
The opposition activist told the court he blamed himself for just one thing.
"I have not managed to convince enough of my compatriots and enough politicians in the democratic countries of the danger that the current regime in the Kremlin poses for Russia and for the world."
While many dissidents fled Russia after Mr Putin invaded Ukraine, Mr Kara-Murza did the opposite, returning to Moscow to campaign against the war. He is dual Russian-British national who in recent years has lived in the US with his wife and their three children.
Evgenia Kara-Murza told the ABC's 7.30 last year it was important to her husband that he return to Russia to try to bring Mr Putin's regime to an end.
"To him, it is his moral duty to be where people are actually fighting the evil," she said.
"He believes he would not have the moral right to call on people to continue opposing the regime if he himself were somewhere safe
"This is what you do. If you really want to bring this regime down, if you really want to stand up to it, this is what you do. You just push beyond your fears or the risks to your life and safety and you go on."
Mr Browder says in modern day Russia the good guys are the criminals, and the bad guys are the ones putting the good guys in jail.
"Vladimir Kara-Murza should be leading the country. Vladimir Putin should be in prison for crimes against humanity. It's as simple as that."
