Lawyers representing jailed Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza said on Wednesday they do not know the dissident’s exact location after they were twice denied access to the facility where he was supposed to be held.
Rumours of a prisoner swap between Russia and Western countries have been rife after several high-profile inmates, including foreigners, have disappeared in recent days from Russian prisons where they are serving long-term sentences.
“Today Vladimir Kara-Murza’s lawyer was not allowed to visit him in the prison hospital for the second day in a row. The exact location of the political prisoner is unknown,” his lawyer Vadim Prokhorov wrote on Facebook.
Kara-Murza, a 42-year-old joint Russian and British citizen, is serving a 25-year sentence in Siberia for treason and other charges.
He is suffering from a neurological disease and was taken to the jail hospital for a medical check-up earlier this month.
The dissident is being represented by a local lawyer in the Siberian city of Omsk, where he is imprisoned.
Prokhorov said that on Tuesday and Wednesday the lawyer was told that he could not meet his client because he had to undergo a medical examination.
Prokhorov said such a denial of entry was a “gross violation”.
Kara-Murza is due to have a legal appeal hearing in public court in Omsk on Thursday. His defence team is demanding he be allowed to attend the hearing via video link.
“Court staff and the administration of the prison hospital have already expressed doubts that there will be stable video contact with Vladimir Kara-Murza tomorrow,” Prokhorov wrote.
“But at the same time, so far they are denying that he has been transferred from the hospital,” Prokhorov wrote.
AFP contacted the Federal Prison Service, who said they could not provide information on any prisoner without an official request from the penal colony.
At least seven Russian political prisoners have been transferred from their penal colonies or prisons in recent days, according to lawyers and families.
Lawyers for Paul Whelan, a former US Marine jailed on espionage charges, were also unsure of his location on Wednesday.
Both Moscow and Washington have confirmed that talks are underway over a swap involving American journalist Ivan Gershkovitch, who earlier this month was sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage in a fast-track trial that the White House described as a “sham.”
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