The court denied Evgeniy Vitishko parole

On April 15, the Kirsanovsky District Court of the Tambov Region denied the Kuban eco-activist Yevgeny Vitishko parole. This was reported in the broadcast of the Environmental Watch for the North Caucasus from the courtroom.

The prosecutor's office, demanding that Vitishko be denied parole, referred to the penalties he received in the colony, including “sleeping at the wrong time” and “negligent attitude towards weeding tomatoes.” During the debate, the prosecutor also emphasized that Vitishko did not admit his guilt and “is going to do everything the same after his release.”

Lawyer Vitishko Sergei Loktev told OVD-Info that the refusal to parole would be appealed within ten days. In his opinion, when compiling the characteristics, the correctional institution did not study the personality of Vitishko and did not consider the expediency of further serving his sentence. The refusal to parole is motivated by far-fetched penalties for minor offenses, and the characterization of him is deliberately negative, the lawyer claims. According to him, all eight penalties, on the basis of which parole was denied, were issued last year and are at different stages of appeal.

The argument of the prosecutor's office that Vitishko did not repent of the crime committed is incorrect, since according to the decision of the plenum of the Supreme Court, the confession or non-confession of guilt by convicted persons should not be taken into account when considering applications for parole, emphasizes Loktev.

In 2012, Yevgeny Vitishko was sentenced to three years of probation on charges of damaging the fence around Tkachev's dacha . In December 2013, the suspended sentence was replaced by a real one, the ecologist was sent to a colony-settlement. On April 7, after the Supreme Court refused to review this decision, Vitishko went on a hunger strike.

The Human Rights Center "Memorial" recognized Yevgeny Vitishko as a political prisoner, and the international organization Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience.

UPD 17:40. Added lawyer's comment