Medvedev pardons Sutyagin
President Dmitri Medvedev has signed a decree that pardon nuclear weapons researcher Igor Sutyagin.
Igor Sutyagin has been in jail since 1999, the last six years in a prison camp just south of Arkhangelsk. He was convicted of espionage, but has all the time said the charges were false. The trail and verdict againgst Sutyagin has been strongly critizised by several human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
As BarentsObserver reported on Wednesday, rumors indicated that Sutyagin, along with other spy-convicted prisoners in Russia, could be freed in a spy swap with the ten arrested in the United States two weeks ago accused of running a spy ring for Russia.
President Medvedev’s spokeswoman Natalia Timakova said on Friday that the President had pardoned four spy convicts, including Igor Sutyagin, reports Itar-Tass.
The pardon put an end to the most profiled human right case where a person was sitting behind bars in the Russian part of the Barents Region.
Several media sources says on Friday that Sutyagin has already left Russia, possible heading to the United Kingdom.
