27 April 2019, 16:56
Varvara Karaulova enjoys early release
Today, Varvara Karaulova, sentenced for attempting to join the IS*, has been released from a penal colony in Vologda.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 16, in Vologda, the court granted the motion for conditional early relief (CER) filed by Varvara Karaulova (aka Alexandra Ivanova).
On December 22, 2016, the Moscow District Military Court found Alexandra Ivanova (aka Varvara Karaulova) guilty of attempting to join a terrorist organization and sentenced her to 4.5 years of imprisonment.
Varvara Karaulova, released today from the penal colony in Vologda, has been met by Oleg Dimoni, Ombudsman for the Vologda Region, the RIA "Novosti" reports.
Varvara Karaulova refused to talk to the journalists who came to meet her and only thanked everyone for coming. "A press conference of Varvara Karaulova will be held in Moscow on Monday (April 29)," reported Oleg Dimoni as quoted by the "Russia 24" TV Channel.
Let us remind you that on June 4, 2015, Varvara Karaulova and Muslim Akhmaev, a resident of Chechnya, were detained on the Turkish-Syrian border among other Russian citizens, who, according to the investigators' version, were going to join the radical grouping "Islamic State"*. According to the student, she was travelling to the Middle East to meet her fiance Airat Samatov, who was involved in the combat actions in Syria, had a long correspondence with the young student and had access to her page on social networks. After returning to Russia, Varvara Karaulova changed her name to become Alexandra Ivanova.
* Islamic State (IS, former ISIL) is a terrorist organization, banned in Russia by the court
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 27, 2019 at 12:07 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
