Lawyers for Russian political activist Ildar Dadin have asked the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg for assistance in freeing Dadin, who continues to be held in a penal colony despite his sentence being annulled.
Dadin's wife, Anastasia Zotova, wrote on Twitter that an official request was sent to the ECHR on February 24.
On February 22, Russia’s Supreme Court revoked Dadin's conviction on charges of participating in multiple unsanctioned protests and ordered his release from custody.
Dadin, who has been listed by Russian and international organizations as a political prisoner, was serving a 2 1/2-year prison sentence after being convicted under a controversial law that criminalizes participation in more than one unsanctioned protest in a 180-day period.
He is the only person in Russia to have been convicted under that law.
Officials in the penal colony in Altai Krai region in southern Siberia say they cannot free Dadin before they receive the original release order from the Supreme Court.