The Presidential Council for Human Rights, Russian’s top human rights group, on Friday (Oct. 11, 2013) approved a draft ‘broad amnesty’ at the request of President Vladimir Putin, and various members of the council have suggested that the bill could cover the most high profile criminal cases in the country including the two imprisoned members of Pussy Riot, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, according to RT, an international multilingual Russian-based television network.
The head of the council, Mikhail Fedotov, told reporters the amnesty will include convicted women who have underage children, RT reports. According to HR activists the broad amnesty could mean freedom for about a quarter of all Russian prisoners.
President Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that all reports on the amnesty would be considered by the presidential administration as soon as they are submitted, RT reports. The Presidential Council for Human Rights is expected to submit their proposal to President Putin’s office on Monday (Oct. 14, 2013).
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova is currently serving a two year sentence at Penal Colony No. 14 in the region of Mordovia. Maria Alyokhina is serving her sentence in the Berezniki prison colony in the Perm region. Perm and Mordovia are in the freezing central region of Siberia. Both women are due to be released in March of 2014, unless the amnesty frees them sooner.