As Pardon Denial Anniversary Draws Near, Mr. Pichugin Continues to Endure the Putin Regime’s Cruelty
As we approach the two-year anniversary of the May 24, 2016 rejection of Mr. Pichugin’s 2015 request for pardon — with no reasons given — the Putin regime’s cruelty is unrelenting.
There was some hope that the June 6, 2017 ECHR judgment determining that Russia had violated Mr. Pichugin’s human rights, and a subsequent flurry of international activity would positively impact his fate.
As late as September 2017, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe noted the possibility of a pardon as one route to remedy the abuses Mr. Pichugin has suffered. This notion was even supported by the Chairman of the Council for Civil Society Affairs and Human Rights, an office attached to the President of Russia.
However, these hopes were dashed again in the late fall of 2017. Mr. Pichugin received notice that on October 28, 2017, the Russian Federation President had denied his latest request for pardon. And in November 2017, the Russian Supreme Court stated that it saw no reason for a retrial.
While human rights advocates and journalists like Vera Vasilieva continue to shine the light on Mr. Pichugin’s case – he continues to serve his sentence at the Black Dolphin prison, and remains Russia’s longest-serving political prisoner.
For copies of the original pardon denial notices in Russian click here (2016) and here (2017).
For a history of Mr. Pichugin’s pardon requests up until 2017 click here.
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