Press release, 01.11.2018

Vladimir Putin will not consider granting a pardon to a Ukranian film director Oleg Sentsov without Sentsov’s personal petition and a recommendation from the governor of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District where the prisoner is serving his sentence. This follows from the response of the Presidential Directorate for Protection of Citizens’ Constitutional Rights to Yabloko Bureau’s appeal.

Yabloko Bureau appealed to Vladimir Putin during the meeting on 28 September, the 139th day of Oleg Sentsov’s hunger strike.

“The right to pardon is an exclusive prerogative of the President, the Constitution poses no limitation to this right. We call upon the President not to be afraid to exercise this right. This is very important from the point of view of humanism, law and politics,” the statement runs.

In his response S.Yesipov, the head of the Presidential Directorate for Protection of Citizens’ Constitutional Rights, writes that, according to the procedure of consideration of petitions for pardons, the process begins with a personal petion of a prisoner who appeals to the President via the colony administration. Then the petition goes to a competent regional commission where a preliminary decision is made.

According to Yesipov, Yabloko’s appeal will be attached to the case if Sentosov makes a personal petition.

“A response like this means that the President disclaims responsibility for a very important issue. It is a political issues but also a humanitarian one in the first place – it is about saving the life of a person who was accused [of a crime] on political grounds,” Emilia Slabunova, Yabloko Chair, said.