Taisiya Osipova, Russian opposition activist, given long sentence for possession of heroin

Russian opposition activist Taisiya Osipova has been jailed for possession of heroin for eight years – double the sentence requested by the prosecution.

Supporters of Taisiya Osipova, 28, say her trial was politically motivated.

Taisya Osipova said the drugs were planted in revenge for her refusal to testify against her husband, Sergei Fomchenkov, a leader of the Other Russia movement.

Her case was a retrial after ex-President Dmitry Medvedev called her original 10-year sentence “too harsh”.

Taisiya Osipova was arrested in 2010 when four grams of heroin were allegedly found in her home.

Her 10-year sentence in late 2011 was criticized both inside and outside Russia, not least because she had a young daughter and suffered from diabetes, which led to health complications in prison.

Dmitry Medvedev asked for her case to be reviewed.

At the trial in Smolensk, about 400 km (250 miles) west of Moscow, Taisiya Osipova continued to protest her innocence.

One witness, who passed a lie detector test, testified that he had seen the police plant the drugs during their search.

At the courthouse, one of Russia’s most prominent opposition figures, Sergei Udaltsov, denounced the sentence as “schizophrenic and monstrous”, and “the triumph of lawlessness and cynicism”.

Mikhail Fedotov, head of the Kremlin’s own council on human rights, described the verdict as a “legal mistake”.

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