Yevgeny Vitishko, a 40-year-old scientist, is ostensibly being punished for the crimes of spray-painting a fence and swearing in public. Vitishko was among seven members of Environmental Watch of the North Caucasus detained on the eve of the Olympics. An appeal of the decision to jail him for three years was rejected during a hearing that he couldn’t attend this week because he was imprisoned.
“The case against Vitishko has been politically motivated from the start,” said Yulia Gorbunova, a Human Rights Watch official in Russia. “When the authorities continued to harass him it became clear they were trying to silence and exact retribution against certain persistent critics of the preparations for the Olympics.”
IOC officials on Thursday sought “clarification” from Russian authorities on Vitishko’s incarceration. “We have raised this case in the past,” an IOC spokesman said.
As members of Pussy Riot recently learned, life in a Russian penal colony means being enslaved in inhumane conditions and forced to work. Nearly 600,000 people are serving sentences in such facilities.
- Russia: Justice Fails Environment Activist at Appeal, Human Rights Watch
- Sochi Winter Olympics: IOC ask Russian authorities for explanation over Yevgeny Vitishko sentence, The Sydney Morning Herald
Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
… and this is what happens there!! When you voice your opinion ….. no first amendment there, right??
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Mike…in the UK/RU dices NO a un poli…(en lenguaje mediterraneo) y te apalizan !!!…y encima …lo justifican en Jucio como …..”RESPUESTA a/ en el mismo grado de AGRESION o VIOLENCIA ” !!! y los jueces…van y se lo creen. Cristianos, las PERFECTAS VICTIMAS….juran sobre la BIBLIA y a confesarse el proximo Domingo…..BLASFEMIA en su ESTADO PURO y Duro
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