Jailing of Pregnant Mother of 4 Sparks Protest
A mother of four who is pregnant with a fifth child has become a cause célèbre after a court jailed her for three years even though it could have waived the sentence under a legal provision allowing leniency for mothers with young children.
The Moscow Times notes that former YUKOS lawyer Svetlana Bakhmina, a mother of three who failed to receive leniency when jailed on politically tinged charges in 2006, is spearheading a campaign to secure the release of the mother, Yulia Kruglova, a regional director for a Dutch-owned insurance company who was jailed in July on embezzlement charges.
Bakhmina, who herself was released on parole last year after spending more than four years in prison and giving birth to a third child in a prison hospital, initiated the campaign for Kruglova after hearing about it from a LiveJournal friend.