The Kremlin has refused to comment on the possibility of pardoning Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov without his personal petition, as other Ukrainian citizens were earlier released from Russian prisons.
"This issue lies in the legal plane. I cannot answer you – it's not in my competence," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists, an UNIAN correspondent in Russia reports.
As UNIAN reported, FSB operatives detained Sentsov in Crimea in the spring of 2014. He was transferred to Russia, where he was tried on trumped-up charges of organizing terror attacks and setting fire to the offices of political parties.
Read also"Pardon my son": Sentsov's mother appeals to Putin
The Russian court in August 2015 sentenced Sentsov to 20 years in prison. The Ukrainian film director is being held in a colony in the distant Arctic town of Labytnangi.
On May 14, 2018, Sentsov went on a hunger strike demanding the release of all Ukrainian political prisoners.
Ukrainian Ombudsperson, Liudmyla Denisova, was denied access to Sentsov.
It became known today Sentsov's mother, Lyudmila, as early as June 22, 2018, appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request to grant pardon to her son.
