ST. PETERSBURG, March 17 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) - The Smolninsky District Court in St. Petersburg has refused to release two seriously ill women convicted of drug dealing, lawyer Vitaliy Cherkasov told RAPSI on Thursday.

The women at the age of 37 and 28 are suffering from cancer, HIV and Hepatitis C.

Motions filed by the convicts for early release were supported by the head of a penitentiary clinic for St.Petersburg and Leningrad Region. However, the court dismissed the petitions.

The lawyer is going to apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over this decision.