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Amnesty freedom ruled out in high-profile trial convictions — ombudsman

There will be no release for those convicted in the Bolotnaya Moscow riot case or for opposition activist Alexey Navalny and his brother Oleg, both accused of large-scale fraud
Aleksey and Oleg Navalny Mikhail Pochuyev/TASS
Aleksey and Oleg Navalny
© Mikhail Pochuyev/TASS

MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. Freedom will not be granted to several individuals sentenced in high-profile trials of recent years in the amnesty marking the 70th anniversary of World War II Soviet victory, a Russian human rights ombudsman told TASS on Friday.

There will be no release for those convicted in the Bolotnaya Moscow riot case or for opposition activist Alexey Navalny and his brother Oleg, both accused of large-scale fraud, said Andrey Babushkin, heading the commission for penitentiary system reform on the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights.

Freedom is unlikely for Yevgenia Vasilyeva, once controlling Defense Ministry property sales, or for ecologist Yevgeniy Vitishko, "whose suspended sentence was replaced with imprisonment and will be most likely qualified as a 'malicious offender’, a category not subject to amnesty", said Babushkin.

And amnesty would also likely not await former Sakhalin region governor Alexander Khoroshavin and former Federal Penitentiary Service head Alexander Reimer, both named in high-profile corruption cases, he added.

State Duma deputies in Russia's parliamentary lower house voted unanimously on Friday for a presidential draft amnesty. The document passed at second and third readings takes force after being officially published and will be effective for six months.

Amnesty could be granted for up to 60,000 in prison and up to 200,000 with suspended sentences.

Release will cover individuals sentenced for minor offences, people with minimal social protection, juveniles, women with underage children, elderly people and those convicted for crimes through negligence.

There is no amnesty for those behind bars for grave crimes such as murder, terrorism, drug trafficking and kidnapping.