Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has pardoned two Russian citizens, Nikolai Filipchenko and Sergey Moiseenko, who had been convicted on espionage charges, the president's office said on Friday, APA reports citing Sputnik.
"Nikolai Filipchenko has been pardoned from serving the rest of his term in accordance to Article 79 (2) of Lituania's penal code.... Sergey Moiseenko has been pardoned from serving the rest of his term", the office said in a statement.
On Wednesday, Lithuanian media reported that the country's Pardon Commission would issue its recommendations for the president to pardon certain prisoners without revealing who those were. The commission considered 123 pardon pleas.
Both Russians were sentenced to prison terms in 2017, facing 10 and 10.5 years of jail time, respectively. However, in October Moscow and Vilnius reportedly managed to agree to an exchange. According to media outlets, Russia was ready to release two Lithuanian nationals, sentenced for espionage in Russia in 2016 in exchange for Filipchenko.
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