Human rights defenders ask Russian president to pardon political prisoners

On April 4, human rights activists and figures of culture sent an appeal to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev with a request to pardon those from the so-called "lists of political prisoners". On February 8, the organizers of the rally "For Fair Elections" conveyed the list of people whom they consider to be political prisoners to Mikhail Fedotov, the Chairman of the President's Council on Human Rights. Dmitry Medvedev instructed the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) to study the sentences passed to the figurants of the list.

On March 15, the Council for Promotion of Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights delivered to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev an expert's opinion on the pardon institution, which justified the idea that the president has the power to pardon any prisoner, not waiting for his or her application, the RIA "Novosti" reports.

On April 2, the GPO announced that they finished the check of the criminal cases related to the "list of political prisoners", including the cases of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev. However, its results are still unknown, the edition "Bfm.ru" writes.

On the same day, April 2, Dmitry Medvedev dismissed recommendations of the President's Council on Human Rights relating the pardoning procedure. "The President wrote in his resolution that he did not understand why he should pardon the person who had not asked for that. This is the opinion of the president. We have presented him with the opinion of ten experts in the field of constitutional law. He did not agree with them," the "Lenta.ru" quotes Mikhail Fedotov as saying.

According to Lev Ponomaryov, the executive director of the movement "For Human Rights", the appeal to pardon political prisoners was sent on April 4 at the initiative of human rights defenders, the Radio Liberty reports.

The appeal to Medvedev was signed more than 20 persons, including human rights defenders Lyudmila Alekseeva, Lev Ponomaryov, Svetlana Gannushkina, writers Boris Strugatsky and Vladimir Voinovich, actor Sergey Yursky and actress Liya Akhedjakova, film director Eldar Ryazanov and literary critic Marietta Chudakova.