President pardons Oksana Sevastidi sentenced for high treason

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on pardoning Oksana Sevastidi, a resident of Sochi, who was sentenced in 2016 on the charge of high treason for sending an SMS to Georgia concerning transportation of military vehicles.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 3, 2016, Oksana Sevastidi was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment for sending an SMS to her friend to Georgia in 2008, in which she confirmed that she had seen the transportation of military vehicles in direction of Abkhazia. Oksana Sevastidi herself expressed her disagreement with the charge and the verdict. In late December 2016, Dmitry Peskov, the Russian presidential press secretary, reported that the Kremlin was engaged in investigating the circumstances of the Oksana Sevastidi' case. In February, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" recognized Oksana Sevastidi as a political prisoner and called on to cancel the verdict.

The presidential decree on pardoning Oksana Sevastidi was signed on March 7. "The decree enters into force five days after the day of its official publication," reports the very document posted on the official Internet portal of legal information.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.