23:00, 3 March 2011

Tuapse, Krasnodar and Moscow host pickets in support of arrested ecologists

Solo picket of a member of the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus" in Krasnodar defence of political prisoners kept in Tuapse. March 2, 2011. Courtesy of the newspaper "Da! Krasnodar", http://dakrasnodar.ru/news/dacha-tkacheva-020311

On the day when appeals were considered against the verdict of the court, which had sentenced four activists of the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus" and the "Yabloko" Party to administrative arrests, protest actions were held in Moscow, Krasnodar and Tuapse demanding to release the arrested ecologists.

On March 2, protest actions were held in support of the detainees. As stated in the message of the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus", which arrived to the "Caucasian Knot", in Moscow and Krasnodar actions passed peacefully, but in Tuapse a local woman-picketer Natalia Tsinko was detained by militiamen.

Also on March 2, a trial in Tuapse considered the cassation complaint lodged by the ecologists' advocate. The court upheld the first instance's verdict - custody of the four activists for the term of 7-10 days, but reduced the one for Zufar Achilov from 7 to 5 days. This was reported by the website of the "Yabloko" Party.

The arrested Evgeniy Vitishko, Dmitry Shevchenko, Zufar Achilov and Suren Gazaryan continue a hunger strike announced by them in protest against the verdict.