MOSCOW. Dec 8 (Interfax) - Member of the Russian Presidential Council for Human Rights (HRC) Eva Merkacheva at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin will ask him to hold an amnesty campaign in the country, timed to coincide with the 76th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
"According to the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, 85,000 people are those who have less than a year left to serve time until the end of their prison term. I propose that these people, regardless of the category of the article under which they were convicted, should be released during an amnesty campaign. On the one hand, they will be released in a year, and on the other hand, commuting [their sentences] by this year will compensate for the restrictions that affected them due to Covid-19," Merkacheva told Interfax.
Pregnant women, participants in hostilities, who were convicted of minor and non-violent crimes, first convicted of crimes of small and medium gravity, and so on, should also fall under the amnesty, she said. In her opinion, this amnesty will allow about 100,000 convicts to be released.
The HRC's meeting with the Russian president is expected to take place on December 10, when Human Rights Day will be marked.