Press release, 30.07.2015

Human rights defender and YABLOKO Bureau member Andrei Babushkin will visit the court hearing on Evgeny Vitishko’s case where his lawyer Sergei Loktyev’s motion on replacing the rest part of the imprisonment term with release on parole will be considered on July 31.

Andrei Babushkin, member of presidential Council for human rights, was sent to participate in the court hearing by head of the Council and presidential adviser Mikhail Fedorov who had sent a motion to Prosecutor’s office in the interests of Evgeny Vitishko.

Sergei Loktev filed a request on the reduction of sentence after the court refused to release the political prisoner on parole. The motion is filed on the grounds of Article 80 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation which runs that a person who serves restriction of liberty the court of law may replace the remaining term of punishment with a milder penalty after one third part of the term. At the moment Evgeny Vitiskho actually served one year and a month which is one third of the term.

Lawyer Loktev demands to bring back the conditions when the environmentalist had a suspended sentence.

YABLOKO member Evgeny Vitishko is a well-known environmentalist and civil activist. In 2012 Vitishko was charged with three years on probation for criticism of Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Alexander Tkachyov under a pretext of spray-paining on the fence of his “country house” built on the seized and fenced public lands. The environmental activist expressed his disagreement with unlawful seizure of the lands and fencing of public territories in a natural reserve near the Black Sea. At the same time, a special prosecutor’s investigation stated that no fence has ever existed at that place. On the threshold of the Sochi Olympic Games Vitishko’s suspended sentence was replaced by a real term in a penal settlement.

The YABLOKO party stood up in support of Evgeny Vitishko more than once. On Februray 18, the Day of Solidarity with Evgeny Vitishko, mass street actions took place around the world. By July 3, Vitishko’s birthday, YABLOKO turned out a batch of T-shirts in support of the environmentalist.

Both Russian and international organisations have repeatedly made statements in support of Vitishko. In 2014 Amnesty International declared Vitishko the prisoner of conscience. In March 2015, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights addressed Russia with a call to take urgent measures to protect Evgeny Vitishko’s rights and freedoms. Human Rights Watch also addressed the Russian authorities demanding to release Evgeny Vitishko. ALDE Party President Sir Graham Watson earlier this year stated that he “finds it cynical against the background of the Winter Olympics that a respected environmentalist from the Sochi region, who was protesting against the severe destruction of ecological systems in and around Sochi in connection with the Olympic games, receives such a lengthy sentence. It represents another episode in the ongoing wave of reprisals against civil society activists in Russia. Yevgeny Vitishko must be freed.” Statements in favour of the release of Vitishko were made by world and European liberals – Liberal International, the ALDE party, Norwegian Venstre, Zares, Slovenia, the Liberal Party of Moldova, Italia dei Valor and others. IOC and Olympic Committees of Norway and Sweden and Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg also asked to release Vitishko.