Amnesty proposed by Russian rights body could see high-profile prisoners freed

Russian Jail File Photo Showing Outer Wall, Windows, Barbed Wire

(Interfax – October 16, 2013) Anti-Kremlin protesters prosecuted in the so-called “Bolotnaya case” could be freed under the amnesty proposed by the Human Rights Council (HRC) under the Russian president, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 16 October.

The draft submitted to President Vladimir Putin specifically mentions people who “took part or were convicted for taking part in public events”, unless responsible for serious injuries or significant damage to property, Interfax said. This could apply to those already convicted, currently on trial or awaiting trial over clashes with police at the end of the authorized rally in Moscow’s Bolotnaya Square in March 2012, on the eve of Putin’s inauguration.

HRC made its suggestions for the amnesty to mark the 20th anniversary of the Russian constitution on 12 December 2013 at Putin’s request. Interfax quoted HRC head Mikhail Fedotov saying the amnesty should be a broad one but should not cover those convicted of homicide, kidnapping, rape or human trafficking, or “dangerous repeat offenders”.

Yukos, Greenpeace, Pussy Riot

The report also quoted another HRC member, head of the National Anticorruption Committee Kirill Kabanov, as saying that “some of those convicted in Yukos cases could be included in the amnesty” too, without naming names. The best-known convicts in these cases are former co-owners of the Yukos oil company Mikhail Khodorkovskiy and Platon Lebedev, who have been in prison since 2003 and are not due for release until 2016.

Kabanov said it was hard to say whether the proposed amnesty would cover the Greenpeace activists from the ship Arctic Sunrise, who were awaiting trial in Russia – currently on piracy charges. As for the two imprisoned members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot, Kabanov said “they are going to be freed soon anyway”.

State Duma divided

The State Duma was divided on the amnesty proposed by the HRC, state-owned Russian news channel Rossiya 24 reported later.

It showed Sergey Mironov, Just Russia parliamentary party leader, saying: “There should be the broadest possible amnesty to mark such an important event as the 20th anniversary of the Russian constitution, the 20th anniversary of the Federal Assembly (parliament) of the Russian Federation”. He said he supported amnestying the so-called “Bolotnaya prisoners” and the two Pussy Riot members.

However, LDPR party leader Vladimir Zhirinovskiy said: “LDPR is not going to support any amnesty. We made our own proposal a hundred times but it is not being adopted – and now they are speculating on this subject! They will once again be releasing swindlers and crooks. We are not giving a single vote for the amnesty so as to make sure that the likes of Khodorkovskiy and (Aleksey) Navalnyy (opposition leader facing embezzlement charges) are not released!”

Communist MP and legal expert Vadim Solovyev was noncommittal in his comments, Interfax reported. “We are going to study the proposal. In general, we are in favour of an amnesty, but one has to look at the details,” he said, adding that the Communist Party had earlier made its own proposals for amnestying the Bolotnaya prisoners.

For his part, head of the State Duma Committee for Civil, Criminal, Arbitration and Procedural Law Pavel Krasheninnikov from the ruling United Russia party said, as quoted in another Interfax report: “I cannot comment on specific individuals but we welcome the amnesty proposal, provided that the crime situation does not explode”.

Meanwhile a report on state-owned Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted Putin’s press secretary, Dmitriy Peskov, as saying the draft submitted by the HRC would be “worked on and discussed by experts, above all those from the Legal Directorate (of the presidential administration)”.

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