Russian Mother Arrested for Treason Gets Official Apology

By Anna Dolgov

April 24, 2015

Russian activist Svetlana Davydova feeds her daughter Kassandra after returning home in Vyazma, Feb. 4, 2015. Maxim Zmeyev / Reuters

Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has apologized to a mother of seven who had been charged with high treason for phoning the Ukrainian embassy to warn about possible movements of Russian troops toward eastern Ukraine, her lawyer said.

Svetlana Davydova received an official letter from an assistant prosecutor on Thursday, “in which he on behalf of the state offers her an official apology for the harm inflicted as the result of criminal persecution on high treason charges,” lawyer Ivan Pavlov said, RIA Novosti reported.

The charges against Davydova were dropped on March 13, after a popular campaign in her support.

The 37-year-old had been accused of calling the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow in April 2014 after overhearing a soldier's conversation about troops from a military base near her home being sent to eastern Ukraine.

She was arrested in January, and released from jail to await trial at home the following month, after nearly 20,000 people signed a petition to free her.

After the case was dismissed, Davydova said that she would not seek compensation for her detention, according to Russian media reports.

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