Tuapse court toughens punishment of ecologist Evgeny Vitishko

The Tuapse City Court has obliged Evgeny Vitishko, a member of the "Yabloko" Party and an activist of the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus", sentenced to probation in the case about the fence of the "Tkachov's Summer House", to appear – twice a month – at the penal inspection and not to leave the Tuapse District without notifying the police.

The ecologists Evgeny Vitishko and Suren Gazaryan were sentenced to three years of probation for damaging a fence around the so-called "summer house of the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Alexander Tkachov". According to the verdict, Vitishko and Gazaryan should stay at home every day from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Moscow time.

The new ruling was taken by the court in response to the presentation of the above inspection, according to which Mr Vitishko had violated the probation rules, when, as a candidate for deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Tuapse, Krasnodar Territory, at night on October 15, after the voting, he was not at home but in the building of the Tuapse TEC (Territorial Election Commission).

Evgeny Vitishko himself insisted that he had pre-notified about it the Tuapse penal inspection.

At the session on December 7, Judge Sergey Eremenko upheld the arguments of the inspection and extended Vitishko's probation by two months, toughening his sentence.

Andrei Rudomakha, the head of the regional branch of the "Yabloko" Party, is sure that the real mission of the inspection was to "create obstacles" for Vitishko's campaigning in his run for the post of head of the Krymsk District. The election is scheduled for December 9. By decision of the court, Vitishko has been removed from the race.