The members of the Pussy Riot punk band, Greenpeace activists and protesters jailed after the May 2012 Bolotnaya demonstration will be freed in an amnesty dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution, Izvestia newspaper claims.
A total of 25,000 people will be freed under the amnesty initiated by President Putin, Interfax cited Vladimir Vasilyev, deputy speaker of parliament, as saying.
“Around 1,300 people will be released from prison, and 17,500 people will be relieved of non-custodial sentences. In addition, criminal proceedings against nearly 6,000 can be terminated,” Vasilyev said.
The upcoming amnesty won’t apply to those who committed crimes that posed a serious danger to society, he added.
The amnesty will give preference to convicts in vulnerable social categories and people who have served the country, Vasilyev said.
It will favor minors, mothers with small children, pregnant women, women over 55 and men over 60, the disabled, Chernobyl cleanup workers and military veterans, he said.
Izvestia newspaper has obtained a copy of the draft amnesty, which was submitted to the parliament by President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
According to the paper, the participants in such high-profile cases as the Pussy Riot Cathedral protest, Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise boarding of an oil rig and the Bolotnaya Square riots will all be granted amnesty.
The amnesty will be adopted before the end of the year and implemented within the next six months, a high-ranked source in the parliament told Izvestia.
Russia celebrates the 20th anniversary of the country’s Constitution on December 12.
Three members of the Pussy Riot punk band were each sentenced to two years in prison after staging a protest in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral in February 2012, although one member of the band was later released on appeal.
The 30 Greenpeace activists are currently on bail and awaiting trial after an attempt to board Russia’s Prirazlomnaya oil platform in the Barents Sea this September.
The so-called Bolotnaya prisoners are people who were detained following riots on Bolotnaya Square in central Moscow in May 2012.
Leaked: Pussy Riot, Greenpeace activists included in draft amnesty — RT News.