in 2011 osipova was sentenced by the russian courts to 10 years in prison for possession of heroin. in 2012 the sentence was reduced to 8 years in a retrial ordered by a higher court, after president dmitry medvedev had called her original sentence "too harsh". osipova claims the heroin had been planted in a police raid. mikhail fedotov, head of russia's council on human rights, has called the verdict a "legal mistake".