Press Release , September 25, 2013

Leaders of human rights organisations submitted a draft amnesty act for the political prisoners of the Bolotnaya Square case.

YABLOKO’s Political Committee members and renowned human rights defenders Valery Borschyov and Sergei Kovalev are among the authors of the draft amnesty act.

“It is obvious for us that this [criminal] case was artificially created and what was happening in Bolotnaya Square can hardly be called an ‘insurgency’. This is clearly seen from the action of many of the riot police officers refusing to give evidence against the defendants in the case,” said Valery Borschyov.

It is proposed to announce amnesty in order to “mitigate the contradictions in the Russian society, reach national reconciliation and strengthen civil peace and accord”.

The project is based on the text of the amnesty act adopted by the Parliament in 1994 towards the participants in the events [coups] of August 1991 and October 1993.

“Because of the amnesty for the participants of the coup [of 1991] and the constitutional crisis of 1993, MPs, YABLOKO faction inclusive, managed to avoid a split in the society which could have led to a civil war. Today we are facing a similar situation,” Valery Borschyov stressed.

Human rights activists plan to send the draft amnesty act to the State Duma and the President’s Administration.

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin has repeatedly stated that the trial on the Bolotnaya case was political. In late June, 2013, Mitrokhin supported twelve prisoners in the very beginning of the trial in the Moscow City Court.

Last week, Vladimir Lukin, Russia’s Ombudsman and one of the founders of the YABLOKO party, filed a supervisory appeal on the decision of the court to extend the terms of arrest for two prisoners: Vladimir Akimenkov and Yaroslav Belousov.

See also:

To release all the detained protestors of the demonstration of May 6!

Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin helped to get Nikolai Kavkazsky, a prisoner of the Bolotnaya rally case, from the prison