The lawyer of a Russian woman convicted of high treason after sending a text message to a friend in Georgia says she wants to appeal her prison sentence.
Oksana Sevastidi, 46, was sentenced to seven years in prison in March for texting in 2008 about a Russian train full of military equipment heading toward the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia during the brief war between Russia and Georgia.
Her lawyer, Ivan Pavlov, said on December 2 that he asked the Krasnodar regional court to allow his client to appeal the sentence as all deadlines for such an appeal have passed.
Sevastidi's former lawyer did not appeal the sentence in time for unknown reasons, according to Pavlov.
Oleg Orlov of the Memorial Human Rights Center in Moscow says Sevastidi's case is politically motivated.
