Press release, 16.10.2015
Enviromnmentalist Evgeny Vitishko submitted another application on release on parole to the Kirsanovsky district court of the Tambov region. The Federal Penitentiary Service supported Vitishko’s motion for the first time.

“Evgeny Vitishko has all the chances to be released on parole,” said Vitishko’s lawyer Sergei Loktev.

On October 8, the Tambov regional court annulled the decision of the inferior Kirsanovsky district court (court of the first instance) on the refusal to release on parole Evgeny Vitishko, environmentalist from the Sochi region and YABLOKO member, and the refusal to amnesty him in connection with the 70th anniversary of the Victory over Nazi Germany in the World War 2. The Tambov regional court ruled out to send the case for reconsideration to the same Kirsanovsky district court.

The Prosecutor supported both Vitishko’s appeals in the Tambov regional court and specified that the arguments of the defense “should be taken into consideration”.

The Prosecutor asked to satisfy Vitishko’s claim on annulling the Kirsanovsky district court decision on refusal to amnesty the environmentalist.

Earlier Andrei Babushkin told President Vladimir Putin that the conviction of environmentalist Evgeny Vitishko had been unlawful.

“He was not only unlawfully convicted, but was not unlawfully released on parole. And it is the blame of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, although Vitishko has been working [in the colony] honestly and has been sending his entire salary to an orphanage for the disabled. [The colony] announced that he had eight reprimands, simply because he had written a complaint to [Russian Ombudsperson] Ella Pamfilova, and had not a single encouragement! ” Babushikn told Vladimir Putin during the meeting of human rights defenders with the President.
On October 12, Youth YABLOKO activists in Moscow and North Ossetia conducted a series of one-person picketing demanding that the Federal Penitentiary Service must support Vitishko’s motions.