An Irkutsk district court de-facto ignored a higher court's recommendation when on Friday it postponed for 14 years a prison sentence for a driver who killed a pedestrian and crippled another.
Anna Shavenkova was handed a 2 1/2-year sentence, but will not begin serving it until 2024, which will allow her to raise her infant son, Interfax said.
The court also cited her new pregnancy, lack of criminal record and the fact that she has paid 300,000 rubles ($10,000) to the family of the victims as reasons to postpone the jailing, RIA-Novosti said.
Shavenkova pleaded guilty and apologized to the victims, but their lawyer nevertheless promised to appeal.
Shavenkova, daughter of then-head of the Irkutsk region elections committee, rammed into two female pedestrians on an Irkutsk sidewalk in 2009 after losing control of her car.
Surveillance video leaked online showed Shavenkova ignoring the victims and examining the damage to the car while talking on her cell phone after the crash.
An Irkutsk court sentenced Shavenkova to three years in prison in August &mdash but postponed the sentence until her newborn son reaches 14.
The ruling sparked outrage amid bloggers, many of whom said the non-obligatory leniency rule was only applied because Shavenkova was an official's daughter. They cited another high-profile case that saw Svetlana Bakhmina, ex-lawyer for Yukos — on which the authorities cracked down hard — kept in prison for four years despite a pregnancy and two underage children.
A higher court ordered a retrial in October, and Shavenkova's mother Lyudmila resigned the next month.
A Message from The Moscow Times:
Dear readers,
We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."
These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.
We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.
Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.
By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.
Remind me later.
