Post date: Dec 18, 2013 3:29:46 PM
The husband of jailed Pussy Riot band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Peter Verzilov, says amnesty makes little difference.
MOSCOW, RUSSIA (DECEMBER 17, 2013) (REUTERS) - The husband of one of the jailed members of Russian punk group Pussy Riot has told Reuters that a newly adopted amnesty allowing for his wife's early release makes little difference to her situation.
Speaking to Reuters TV in his Moscow home, Peter Verzilov, the husband of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, said his wife and fellow band member Maria Alekhina were almost at the end of their sentences.They are serving two years in prison for a protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin in a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Moscow in 2012.
"They both were rather sceptical about it (the amnesty) because, first of all, it wasn't clear up until the last moment when it will finally be adopted by the Duma. The girls basically have two months left in jail out of two years, so getting this sort of a little discount at the end of your term doesn't make much difference. So this amnesty didn't really help them."
"And besides, they are also not very happy about the fact that the final version of the bill is not as wide as it was proposed by human rights activists, it has been cut. Many categories of people, who everyone hoped would be included, didn't make it there," he said.
Putin submitted his proposal last week for the amnesty to mark the 20th anniversary of Russia's post-Soviet constitution, after long debate about how many it would free and whether it would apply to inmates his critics call political prisoners.
Thirty people arrested in Russia over a protest against Arctic oil drilling will also avoid trial and the threat of jail under the amnesty.
Last-minute changes to the amnesty proposed by President Putin mean legal proceedings against the 30 are "almost certain" to end and the 26 non-Russians among them should be able to go home, the environmental group said.
But the amnesty will leave Putin foes such as former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky in jail and will not benefit Alexei Navalny, an opposition leader serving a five-year suspended sentence on a theft conviction he says is politically motivated.
Analysts say the Kremlin may believe freeing prisoners such as Nadezhda Tolokonnikova andMaria Alyokhina, whose punishment has been condemned in the West as excessive, could ease criticism before Russia hosts the Winter Olympics in February.