Earlier on Friday, a
court in Washington sustained the prosecution’s request for sentencing Butina
to 18 months behind bars.
WASHINGTON, April 27.
/TASS/. Russian citizen Maria Butina, sentenced to 18 months behind bars on
Friday for violating the US law on foreign agents, may be released in November,
her attorney Robert Driscoll told reporters after the sentencing.
"We expect that
Maria should be back to Russia hopefully in the full some time, maybe in
November," he said.
According to
Driscoll, the defense team would look into the possibility of filing an appeal,
but sees little potential for it due to the plea bargain that Butina signed
last December.
"We disagree
strongly with the court sentence," he said, adding that Butina "plead
guilty in this case and, therefore, accepts the sentence."
Earlier on Friday, a
court in Washington sustained the prosecution’s request for sentencing Butina
to 18 months behind bars for violating the US law on the registration of
foreign agents. Judge Tanya Chutkan ignored the defense lawyers’ request that
Butina should be sentenced to a term equal to the period she had already spent
in custody, which is nine months.
"I feel terrible
for Maria’s family. <...> I wish we have done more to get her out sooner.
<...> I do not believe an additional nine months in jail serves any
purpose in terms of punishment or contrition at this point, <...> so I
don’t think that was necessary" he added.
Maria Butina, 30, was
arrested in Washington DC on July 15, right before the Helsinki meeting between
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump. The US
Department of Justice said that she was suspected of acting "as an agent
of Russia inside the United States by developing relationships with US persons
and infiltrating organizations having influence in American politics, for the
purpose of advancing the interests of the Russian Federation."
On December 13,
Butina pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to violate the US law governing foreign
agents operating in the country and signed a plea agreement. The prosecution
said at the time that the process of Butina’s cooperation with the
investigation might take some time.
Butina had arrived in
the United States for a course of studies. Last spring she obtained a master’s
degree at American University, where she studied international relations.
Source: ITAR-TASS
27-04-2019
