MOSCOW, September 26 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has “encouraged” the Supreme Court to review how courts deal with parole cases, the Kremlin has said in a statement.
The issue was raised at a Sept. 4 meeting of the presidential council for civil society and human rights. Council members said that, over the past three years, courts have become increasingly reluctant to release inmates on parole.
They particularly highlighted cases in which people who are eligible for early release are kept behind bars due to disciplinary violations.
The president’s Sept. 24 instruction that practice in this area should be reviewed was posted on the Kremlin website. It comes after members of the anti-Putin Pussy Riot punk group, jailed in August 2012 for their anti-Kremlin “punk prayer” in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral, were repeatedly denied parole, but makes no reference to specific cases.
