Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that it was improper to speak about the Russian administration's refusal to pardon Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker who is serving time in a Russian prison term for plotting terrorist attacks, given that no such request had ever been received.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th August, 2018) Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that it was improper to speak about the Russian administration's refusal to pardon Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker who is serving time in a Russian prison term for plotting terrorist attacks, given that no such request had ever been received.
"I still have nothing to add about Sentsov. You know about the law and you know that it is perhaps not correct in this case to say 'refusal to pardon' because there has never been a pardon request," Peskov told reporters.
Sentsov was convicted by a Russian court in 2015 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for setting up a terrorist cell and plotting a terrorist attack in Crimea. The Ukrainian filmmaker has denied his guilt.
Earlier in August, Peskov said that the Russian presidential administration had received a letter from Sentsov's mother addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin asking that her son be pardoned.
Setsov's cousin, Natalya Kaplan, earlier said that she had received a response from the presidential administration about the mother's pardon request. The request was reportedly transferred to acting governor of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Dmitry Artyuhov for preliminary consideration.
The press service of the regional governor, however, has denied that it received any such request.
Under Russian law, a convicted individual must ask for clemency personally.
