Conviction quashed for driver who killed woman and injured sister

WARNING: graphic images!

A high-ranking regional official’s daughter who killed a woman after driving on a pavement has been cleared – in honour of the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

Anna Shavenkova was 28 when she ploughed into 34-year-old Elena Pyatkova, who was walking on a pavement in the centre of Irkutsk in December 2009. The woman died from injuries sustained in the collision, while her sister Yulia was left paralysed.

CCTV showed how the women were thrown into the side of a building after being hit by the car, which had swerved off the road at high-speed.

It then recorded Shavenkova rushing out to check the front of her Toyota Corolla car for damage, and then walking to the passenger side and making a call on her phone before going to aid the critically-injured sisters she had hit. The video footage was released onto YouTube and created a public outcry when it made the news.

Following a lengthy police investigation and subsequent court case, Shavenkova – the daughter of the Irkutsk Regional Election Committee secretary, and a political ally of Vladimir Putin – was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail.

The sentence was suspended for 14 years as she had just had a baby, before she unsuccessfully appealed the conviction at the Russian Supreme Court.

Shavenkova told the court at the time she was 'very sorry for what happened' but a spokesperson for the victims claimed 'there is no justice in Russia.'

Now in what has become a scandal in Irkutsk she has been amnestied by Oktyabrskiy District Court and the conviction quashed, under the terms of a six-month-long amnesty introduced in April to mark the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.

Reports say it is likely to affect 400,000 people with those given the amnesty required to have 'repented' of their crimes.

A court official said: 'The decision was made to lift the punishment in connection with the 70th anniversary of the World War Two victory.'