Consideration of Evgeny Vitishko's motion on CER rescheduled for April 15

Today, the Kirsanov District Court of the Tambov Region has started the consideration of the motion on conditional early relief (CER) of Evgeny Vitishko, a Krasnodar ecologist. According to an official from the penal colony, the ecologist committed eight violations, seven disciplinary sanctions were imposed against him, and thus, the penal colony stands against his earlier release.

The Court has also questioned Vladimir Rubashny, the retired Colonel of the Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service (known as FSIN), who used to be in charge of the psychological service. Vladimir Rubashny has prepared a conclusion in the Evgeny Vitishko's case, and at the court session, he has described the ecologist in the context of penitentiary psychology as a harmoniously formed person prone to good acts, activists of the "EcoWatch" write in Twitter.

In his turn, the judge has noted that the positive personal characteristics do not cancel the violations committed.

The advocate and the prosecutor have filed the repeated motions to summon to the court staff members of the penal colony, and thus the court session was postponed until April 15.

It should be noted that the advocates of Evgeny Vitishko believe that the Court will most likely dismiss his motion on CER because of penalties imposed against him by the administration of the penal colony.

According to the "EcoWatch", most sanctions were imposed against Evgeny Vitishko after he had reported on mass beating of inmates of the penal colony.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Evgeny Vitishko was accused of damaging the fence around the territory known as "summer cottage" of Alexander Tkachov, the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory. On June 20, 2012, the ecologist  was sentenced to three years of conditional imprisonment, but in December 2013 the above District Court  replaced the conditional by real imprisonment and sent Vitishko to a settlement-colony in the Tambov Region, where he is serving his term.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.