The Kremlin has doubled down on its relentless attack against dissent and activism since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, and one of the most prominent victims of this supersized repression is Vladimir Kara-Murza.

The opposition politician has been detained since April last year. Prosecutors want Kara-Murza locked up for 25-years. He has been indicted for spreading “fake news” about the Russian Armed Forces because he publicly criticized the invasion, and for alleged involvement with an “undesirable” foreign organization. On Monday he gave his final and defiant plea in an outrageous treason trial.

My colleague and Russia expert Rachel Denber highlighted some excerpts, lifted from the full transcription of Kara Murza's speech, that was published by newspaper Novaya Gazeta: "I am in jail for my political views. For speaking out against the war in Ukraine. For a years-long fight against Putin’s dictatorship. For contributing to personal international sanctions against violators of human rights.”

Kara-Murza has called for sanctions against the Kremlin and has spoken in person before national political bodies throughout Europe and in the United States, and at many international and intergovernmental forums, including at the United Nations. He was a key figure advocating for the US Magnitsky Act that gave rise to the Global Magnitsky sanctions regime for serious human rights violations.

Kara-Murza was also a close friend of the murdered Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov. Kara-Murza survived two near-fatal poisonings, in 2015 and 2017, which Bellingcat investigative journalists reported was most likely orchestrated by the Russian Federal Security Service and which the Russian authorities have failed to investigate.

It's obvious the Kremlin sees Kara-Murza as a direct and imminent threat. The charges against him and his prolonged detention are a travesty of justice. Russian authorities should free Kara-Murza immediately and drop all charges against him.

Democratic lawmaker Justin Jones, one of two Black Democrat lawmakers who was expelled from Tennessee’s House of Representatives in the last week, was sworn back into his seat on Monday, a swift rebuke to Republican colleagues who expelled him and fellow lawmaker Justin Pearson for peacefully protesting congressional inaction on gun violence in the wake of a recent school shooting in Nashville.

“The Tennessee house Republicans’ attempt to crucify democracy has instead resurrected a movement led by young people to restore our democracy,” said Jones in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Easter Sunday, together with Pearson.

A third vote to expel Representative Gloria Johnson, a white woman who protested alongside Jones and Pearson, failed. HRW decried the shocking moves to expel the lawmakers, as “voters in Jones’ and Pearson’s districts have been deprived of their duly elected representatives.”

Last week’s actions in Tennessee are blatant reminders of the harm to democracy that comes from a failure in the US to prevent overt racism and to dismantle structural racism.

A lot of work still remains to be done.

(by Aiza Rodrigues Akhtar & Alice Autin)  

Sri Lanka’s new Anti-Terrorism Act was presented as an improvement from its previous counterterrorist laws, which led to widespread torture and arbitrary detentions.

Instead, the law passed last month gives authorities a green light to violate fundamental human rights. The definition of terrorism is vague and too broad, it restricts the rights to freedom of assembly and speech, and people can be detained without any evidence.

This doesn’t bode well, considering Sri Lanka’s abusive history of counterterrorism powers and the current government’s repression of peaceful dissent.  

Rather than a fake makeover which expands the risk of abuses, the government should withdraw and revise the bill. The country’s trade partners need to make it clear that cosmetic changes are not enough.

(compiled by Aiza Rodrigues Akhtar) 

• Denmark: How progressive Denmark became the face of the anti-migration left (The Washington Post) 
• China: Quash Convictions of Prominent Rights Lawyers (HRW) 
• Philippines: Women in Philippines used as Japanese sex slaves demand justice (Al Jazeera)
• Iran installs cameras to find women not wearing hijab (BBC News) 

Since his passing on Friday in Florida at age 103, we are celebrating the long and remarkable life of Benjamin Ferencz, the last-surviving Nuremberg prosecutor of Nazi war criminals. “My thoughts are with Ben Ferencz’s family and friends. As an admirer, on the lucky times I saw him in action, I was always inspired by his humility, heart, and humor. He truly was a “watcher of the sky”—may we keep his watch, striving to build on his giant legacy for justice,” writes Liz Evenson, HRW’s International Justice Director.