Members of the Public Chamber ask Medvedev to pardon Bakhmina

A group of well known Russian lawyers, rights activists and cultural figures who are members of the Public Chamber have written an appeal to President Dmitry Medvedev. They are asking him to pardon former Yukos lawyer Svetlana Bakhmina, who is serving a sentence in a penal colony in Mordovia.

“We are asking you to act with compassion and pardon Svetlana Bakhmina. She has two boys, seven and nine years old, who are left at home. She has already served half (four years) of her sentence and that means she has the right to release on parole,” says the appeal, which carries the signatures of Alla Gerber, Nikolai Svanidze, Yevgeny Yasin, Genry Reznik, Anatoly Kucherena and Vyacheslav Glasychev.

As the members of the Public Chamber note, “the administration of the colony have given her a positive testimonial and, furthermore, Svetlana Bakhmina is now more than six months pregnant.”

“We hope that you will make use of your constitutional right and pardon Svetlana Bakhmina,” says the text.

(Interfax, 15.10.2008)