On Tuesday, Evgeny Vitishko's administrative arrest has expired

The term of the administrative arrest imposed on the ecologist Evgeny Vitishko, currently kept at the special detention facility in the city of Tuapse, has expired on Tuesday at 1:20 p.m. Moscow time, said the lawyer Alexander Popkov. The defence hopes that the activist will be released to freedom; and only then his delivery to the colony-settlement, where he should serve his sentence under a criminal case, will be decided.

Let us remind you that on February 12, the Krasnodar Territorial Court dismissed Vitishko's appeal against the court ruling to change his punishment. According to the police, the ecologist was swearing obscenities at a public transport stop.

The lawyer has noted that the defence and associates of Vitishko fear that he can be convoyed to the colony right from the above special facility. Meanwhile, the ecologist has been holding – for about a week – a hunger strike in protest against the change of his conditional term for the real imprisonment.

As reported by the members of the Public Oversight Commission (POC) of the Krasnodar Territory, during the check it was revealed that the detained Vitishko was deprived of the right to make a daily phone call and see his family members.

Let us note here that Vitishko had criticized the organization of the Olympic Games in Sochi, which, according to the Human Rights Watch, could cause his criminal prosecution.