Statement by the YABLOKO party, 12/02/2014

Earlier today the Krasnodar Regional Court has dismissed the complaint submitted by lawyers of environmental activist Evgeny Vitishko. This means that the verdict of the court of a lower instance in coming into force. This verdict envisages a three-year imprisonment term for Vitishko due to his criticism of Governor of the Krasnodar Territory. Earlier Vitishko had been sentenced to three years of probation for making inscriptions on the fence unlawfully erected in the nature reserve. Now probation has been replaced by a real imprisonment term.

[The court of a lower instance has] has blatantly neglected the order of the Supreme Court to conduct a new examination of this criminal case.

The YABLOKO party is outraged by the cruel sentence against civil activist. A sentence to Evgeny Vitishko represents another episode in the ongoing wave of reprisals against civil society activists and all the dissenting with the policies of the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory. [Governor] Alexander Tkachyov has been settling accounts with his opponents, and this looks especially cynical against the background of the Olympics.

Making such monstrous sentences the authorities do all so that the present Olympics would be compared with the Olympics in 1936.

YABLOKO is urging the federal authorities to pay attention to the lawlessness and arbitrary rule taking place in the Krasnodar region, that cause irreparable reputational damage to the [Sochi] Olympics.

We demand that Public Prosecutor General must appeal against these verdicts.

Evgeny Vitishko must be released!

A series of one-person pickets will take place in front of the Public Prosecutor General Office (Moscow, Bolshaya Dmitrovka 15A; Pushkinskaya or Tverskaya metro stations) tomorrow at 12:00.
See also:
Imprisonment sentence to environmentalist Evgeny Vitishko is discrediting the Olympics
Evgeny Vitishko Has Become a Political Prisoner of the 2014 Olympics
Authorities want to jail Evgeny Vitishko as Olympics draw near