Evgeny Vitishko refuses to write notification of his hunger strike to colony administration

Evgeny Vitishko, a Krasnodar ecologist, who went on hunger strike in a penal settlement-colony of the Tambov Region, is being kept at a common brigade, and he continues to attend mandatory works. According to the advocate, Evgeny Vitishko refuses to write a formal letter of protest.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 20, the panel of judges on criminal cases of the Supreme Court (SC) of Russia dismissed the cassation appeal filed by Evgeny Vitishko against the decision of the Tuapse City Court, which replaced his conditional sentence with three years of imprisonment in a penal settlement-colony. Evgeny Vitishko declared a hunger strike in protest.

On April 7, Elena Shmakova, a common-law wife of Evgeny Vitishko, reported that the ecologist officially informed the penal colony administration about starting the hunger strike.

According to advocate Sergey Loktev, Evgeny Vitishko drinks only water during fourth days, and he intends to continue his hunger strike until the Russian SC accepts for consideration his complaint against the decision of the Tuapse Court.

Last week, the ecologist was visited in the penal colony by Andrei Kolmakov, a member of the Public Monitoring Commission (PMC) of the Tambov Region. The activist has reported that Evgeny Vitishko felt good and voiced no complaints.

The PMC member has also noted that in case if Evgeny Vitishko had written an official notification to the administration of the penal colony on his hunger strike, he would be placed in an isolated room and the state of his health would be under control.

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