Letter from Valentina Bakhmina to Russia’s human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin

Izbrannoye, 24.11.2008

Svetlana Bakhmina’s mother has appealed for help to Russia’s human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin. She asks him to “personally verify the circumstances” in which Svetlana supposedly withdrew her request for a pardon. Her letter is due to be delivered to Lukin today.

In the letter Valentina Bakhmina writes:

“As the mother of Svetlana Bakhmina I am obliged to appeal to you since I learn from the newspapers and the radio that you have met with the head of the FPS [Federal Penitentiary Service]. At this meeting he assured you, supposedly, that all is well with my daughter, that she will give birth in good conditions, that the family have been informed about everything and she is talking to them and a ‘new lawyer’ is in contact with her and with her relations. I would like to point out to you that the words of the head of the FPS are far from the truth.

“No one, apart from Svetlana’s lawyers, have contacted me on her behalf and I have received no information from the FPS. I am extremely disturbed by the present situation. Those in charge of the FPS constantly make false statements about my daughter’s situation. One such statement said she had not submitted a request for a pardon. This was refuted in writing by FPS staff themselves. It is quite clear that those in charge of the FPS are prepared to do everything to isolate my daughter from any contacts and to defend their own reputation.

“They have even gone so far as to introduce a mythical ‘new lawyer’ whom none of us has seen. If my daughter agreed to this, then it was only under pressure since her lawyer is a close friend whom she has known for more than ten years. The FPS, meanwhile, has the effrontery to make the parallel announcement that Svetlana is unable to see anyone. If she is unable to see anyone, then this talk of a new lawyer is just another lie.

“Vladimir Petrovich! I am appealing to you not to rely on anyone else’s reports about my daughter’s situation but ensure a personal inspection of the circumstances in which she withdrew her request for a pardon, when there were no reasonable circumstances for her to do so.”

We have already reported (19 November) about the conversation between Vladimir Lukin and Yury Kalinin, head of the FPS.

At the end of last week, the 30-day deadline expired for a reply to the Internet appeal to the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed by 60,000, requesting that Svetlana Bakhmina be pardoned. We know that the text of this appeal is now with the department for the defence of citizens’ constitutional rights. As yet there is no reply. Meanwhile, a further 27,000 signatures have been added to the Internet petition.

On Monday the Zubovo-Polyansky district court should forward Bakhmina’s appeal against its refusal to grant parole to the Supreme Court of Mordovia.

There is no other news, Bakhmina’s lawyer Roman Golovkin told Izbrannoye. Her lawyers have no contact with her and still do not know exactly where she is.