A court in the western Russian city of Smolensk on Thursday sentenced local resident Taisiya Osipova, an opposition activist, to 10 years in prison for drug trafficking, an online publication reported on Friday.
“The court ruling was not influenced by mitigating circumstances: Taisiya Osipova is the mother of a five-year child and suffers from a number of serious diseases,” the Kommersant business daily reported on its website.
Osipova, the wife of Sergei Fomchenkov, a member of the Other Russia opposition association’s political council, was arrested in November 2010 on charges of drug trafficking.
Opposition figures say the woman’s arrest is linked to her husband’s political activity.
Osipova’s associates have repeatedly held rallies in her support in the past year. More than 60 protesters were detained.
