Russian Court Shortens Prison Term For 'Treason' Text Messages

Russia's Supreme Court has reduced by almost two years the prison sentence for Inga Tutisan, a Russian woman convicted of high treason for sending text messages to Georgian acquaintances about the movement of Russian Navy ships in the Black Sea after the brief 2008 Russian-Georgian war.

Tutisani's lawyer, Ivan Pavlov, said the court's November 16 ruling means Tutisani will be released in 10 days.

Tutisani, a resident of Russia's Black Sea resort city of Sochi, was arrested in October 2013 and sentenced in 2014 to six years in prison.

The trial court found her guilty of sending text messages about Russian ship movements near Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia a year after the August 2008 war.

Three other women from Sochi -- Oksana Sevastidi, Marina Dzhandzhgava, and Annik Kesyan -- were sentenced to lengthy prison terms for sending text messages about the movement of Russian ground forces near Russia's border with Abkhazia shortly before the 2008 war.

They were all pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this year and have been released from custody.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax