Estonia releases first life prisoner

TALLINN - The Harju County Court agreed to the early release of Estonia's first life prisoner, Mikhail Talyshanov.

Talyshanov, 40, who murderedtwo people in 1990, will be set free after the court ruling comes into effectin 10 days. Talyshanov will then be deported from Estonia to Russia's Kaliningrad region.

The Supreme Court of Estonia, then a republic of the formerSoviet Union, sentenced Talyshanov, a militaryschool cadet, to death in 1991 because of the two murders that shocked thecountry in summer 1990.

In March 1993, thenPresident Lennart Meri condoned the death sentence to life imprisonment, makingTalyshanov Estonia's first life prisoner, but inOctober 2002 Meri's successor, Arnold Ruutel, granted him a pardon, cutting hisjail term to 20 years.

Talyshanov, who has beenbehind bars since Sept. 1, 1990, would have finished serving hissentence on Aug. 31, 2010, information provided by theJustice Ministry shows.

The Estonian parliament banned capital punishment in 1998.