Article 80 rather than Article 79 — and why that choice was right
Two routes exist for someone already serving a sentence. Parole under Article 79 releases the person subject to supervision. Commutation under Article 80 replaces the remaining prison term with a milder punishment — forced or corrective labour — so the person leaves the colony but remains within the penal system.
Article 80 opens earlier than parole for the same offence, and it is far less vulnerable to the objection courts most often raise against foreign nationals and against those convicted of drug offences: that there is nowhere to supervise them. Under Article 228.1 the parole threshold is three quarters of the sentence, which is unusually high. Commutation is frequently the realistic first step, and in this case it was.
What decides these applications
Not argument, but documents assembled over months: the conduct record across the whole sentence rather than the recent part of it, incentives received, work performed, education completed, the position of the facility administration, and the settlement of any outstanding civil claim. Applications fail on paperwork far more often than on merits.