This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen
on .
It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
Russia drops treason charges against Svetlana Davydova
Sorry - this page has been removed.
(about 2 months later)
Russia has dropped treason charges against a woman accused of phoning the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow last year to warn that Russian soldiers might be heading to eastern Ukraine, her lawyer has said.
This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason.
Svetlana Davydova, 37, was arrested at her home west of Moscow in January on suspicion of making the call after overhearing a soldier’s conversation about troops from a nearby military base being sent to Ukraine.
Related: Russian woman faces 20 years in prison on treason charges
For further information, please contact:
Davydova was released from pre-trial detention in February after nearly 20,000 people signed a petition to free her.
Her lawyer, Ivan Pavlov, said prosecutors had dropped the charges, which could have put her in prison for 20 years if she had been convicted.
“Criminal proceedings against Svetlana Davydova have been dismissed for lack of evidence. She is completely cleared of charges of treason,” Pavlov wrote on Facebook.
Davydova ruled out seeking compensation for the time she was detained. “I won’t be asking for any compensation. Let any money that I may win in court go to social programmes,” she said, according to news agency Interfax.
Davydova’s husband, Anatoly Gorlov, previously told Reuters that investigators from the Federal Security Service , the successor to the Soviet KGB, arrested his wife in January at their home in Vyazma, 150 miles (250km) west of Moscow.
Russia adamantly denies Western accusations it is sending arms or soldiers to eastern Ukraine to support pro-Russia rebels fighting Ukrainian government troops in a conflict that has killed more than 6,000 since last April.
Pavlov questioned why the case had been opened against his client. “Sometimes we try to find malice in that which can be explained by ordinary stupidity,” he said.
