Evgeniy Vitishko was forced to wear an electronic bracelet

Kuban environmentalist Yevgeny Vitishko, who was released from the colony-settlement in December 2015 due to the fact that the rest of his term was replaced with a restriction of freedom, was put on an electronic bracelet. As reported on the website of the Environmental Watch for the North Caucasus, this happened on January 20, the day Vitishko was finally registered with the Tuapse branch of the penitentiary inspectorate. Vitishko asked to be registered on December 25, but then the inspection for some reason refused. At the same time, even then Vitishko was informed that when registering, he would be put on an electronic bracelet. After that, Andrei Babushkin, a member of the Presidential Human Rights Council, turned to the Federal Penitentiary Service with a request not to apply this technical means of control to Vitishko.

The Ecowatch website notes that at first, when Vitishko was registered on January 20, everything went “routinely”, “no one in the inspection even raised the issue of an electronic bracelet.” However, a few hours later, already in the evening, the ecologist received a call and was told that he had to urgently come to the inspection to put on a bracelet. The Ecowatch website says that this is “a version of the bracelet that is used for those who are placed under house arrest. It only shows whether a person is near the base station device of the device or not.

Andrey Babushkin tried to find out from Inspector Karataev on what basis this means of control was nevertheless applied to Vitishko and who gave such an instruction. Karataev replied that the order came from "above".

Ecowatch reminds that it was the Tuapse branch of the Penitentiary Inspection that initiated the replacement of Vitishko's suspended sentence with a real one. Vitishko was given a suspended three-year sentence in the case of damage to the fence around the dacha, which, according to some reports, belonged to the former governor of the Krasnodar Territory, Alexander Tkachev. The inspection stated that Vitishko violated the regime - he stayed in Krasnodar a day longer than planned, without warning the commission.

The electronic bracelet is listed in the law among "audio-visual, electronic and other technical means of supervision and control used by penitentiary inspections to ensure supervision of those sentenced to punishment in the form of restriction of freedom."