Vladimir Kara-Murza’s defense lawyer Vadim Prokhorov leaves Russia, threatened with prosecution
Vadim Prokhorov, the defense attorney who represented the Russian politician Vladimir Kara-Murza during the trial that concluded on April 17, has left Russia, amidst threats of being disbarred and prosecuted.
Prokhorov told the Washington-based Voice of America about the reasons for his departure. “I left Russia a few days before the verdict and the sentence were announced,” he said, referring to the Kara-Murza trial. During the process, Prokhorov admitted,
both the prosecutor and the judge found different reasons to say that not only should I be disbarred, but that the question of my own criminal prosecution should also be considered. I also got a warning from one particular politician who said one of the Prosecutor General’s deputies overseeing our case might be interested in the new one.
Prokhorov had previously represented Boris Nemtsov’s family in the lawsuit that followed Nemtsov’s assassination. He was also Ilya Yashin’s defense lawyer during the politician’s recent trial, when Yashin was sentenced to 8.5 years in a penal colony for a video stream about the Russian army’s atrocities in Bucha.
On Monday, the court sentenced Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in prison, finding him guilty of high treason and several other charges.