Press release, 01.08.2015
The Kirsanovsky district court of the Tambov region refused to release environmentalist Evgeny Vitishko on parole. Earlier Vitishko’s lawyer Sergei Loktev filed a motion suggesting that Vitishko should be released on parole as having served most of his imprisonment term. The defense plans to appeal against the decision.

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.