Environmental Watch on North Caucasus, Press Release, November 22, 2013
Evgeny Vitishko, one of EWNC activists involved in monitoring the environmental destruction brought by Winter Olympic Games preparations, has been summoned to a hearing where he may be slapped with a real jail sentence, 1.5 years after his conviction in June 2012 in the “fence case” for damaging an illegal fence around the governor’s dacha.

Vitishko, a well-known activist in his hometown Tuapse who had ran for local office, received a summons note to attend a hearing on November 26 with a local judge, where the local prison inspection will petition for turning his suspended three year term into a real prison term.

For the past year and a half Vitishko has been under constant police surveillance. Police monitor his home and follow him, most recently stopping his car twice, searching him, and even taking him to a station, alleging that he had caused an accident. Such harassment is coupled with constant threat of official warnings that he is violating the conditions of his suspended sentence, namely a strict curfew and not leaving the town without permission.

Despite such pressure, Evgeny has remained actively involved in environmental inspections in the area and his expert input as a geologist has been invaluable in EWNC work in Sochi to understand environmental destruction wrought by Olympic preparations.

At this time Evgeny does not understand what sort of a case prison authorities will bring against him in court. He was not shown any documents in court and is in need of a lawyer to attend the hearing next week, where he will ask the judge to supply documents and give him more time to study them.

The case that led to the conviction of Evgeny Vitishko and Suren Gazaryan, another activist who has since been forced to leave the country and is now in exile, was artificially created by regional authorities with the goal to incapacitate the activists’ environmental work. The two were convicted of damaging a fence that was erected illegally in a public forest by writing slogans on it such as “This is our forest”.

Authorities have severely clamped down on our organization in recent weeks, and we expect pressure only to grow ahead of the Olympic Games in Sochi next February.
Enrivonmental Watch on North Caucasus