Press release, 03.12.2015

Today, December 3, the Kirsanovsky Court of the Tambov region postponed consideration of YABLOKO’s Evgeny Vitishko’s appeal on his release on parole until December 25.

The court session on the parole application has been reserved there times: first it was set for November 16 but postponed to December 3 that day.

YABLOKO Chairman advisor, Greenpeace activist Sofia Rusova arrived at the court hearing to support Evgeny Vitishko.

Earlier the court decided to replace Vitishko’s colony settlement imprisonment with a supervised release. However, the Public Prosecutor’s Office challenged this decision. The environmentalist was to leave the colony on November 21.

On November 23, Evgeny Vitishko announced a hunger strike as a sign of protest against
the actions of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Tambov region. He continues the strike up to now. It is already the second hunger strike launched by the environmentalist: the first one was announced in September as an action of protest against the unlawful imprisonment.

Deputy Prosecutor Anatoly Lutov demanded that a change to the court decision must be made according to which Vitishko would not get the right to leave the city of Slavyansk-on-Cuban within one year and three months period. It is significant that the environmentalist is registered in Slavyansk-on-Cuban but hasn’t been living there for 15 years.

By law, the appeal of the public prosecution office can be considered within 30 days. We do not know how long Vitishko will be kept in the colony.

Earlier President Vladimir Putin said that the Public Prosecutor General would examine the information on violation of Evgeny Vitishko’s rights violations after Andrei Babushkin, Member of the Presidential Council for Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, member of YABLOKO’s Bureau told Putin about them.
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.