On probation for "graffiti" Russian dissident breaks probation by swearing in public: faces 3 years

[uhnope]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/sochi-environmental-activist-vitishko-putin-prison

Visiting My Friend in Putin's Prison Camp

A quiet geologist tried to blow the whistle on Olympic pollution and corruption. One year later, he's still paying the price.

I've come to these cold mud flats 440 miles south of Moscow for the first interview Vitishko has given in the seven months since February 12, 2014, the day he was sent away in the midst of the Sochi Winter Olympics.

In the years leading up to the event, Vitishko had emerged as one of the competition's fiercest critics. Along with his little-known organization, the Environmental Watch on North Caucasus (EWNC), Vitishko protested the ecological destruction and crony Kremlin corruption that fed the $51 billion games, the most expensive in history. Now, a year after the closing ceremonies, his dire predictions of environmental havoc have come true—and Vitishko sits in prison. He has been described as the only prisoner of conscience associated with the Sochi Olympics.
...
Vitishko's tangled legal troubles began in 2011, when he led a 12-person protest opposing the fence surrounding Regional Governor Alexander Tkachev's summer home in the Black Sea National Forest. The fence, which still stands, entirely cuts off public access to the beach.
...
In June 2012, Vitishko and Gazaryan were sentenced to three years in prison on charges related to what is locally known as "the fence incident." But the court agreed to suspend the sentences, instead imposing a two-year probationary period. Gazarayan fled Russia later that year. In 2013, Vitishko was found to have broken the court's terms. His sentence was reinstated, but he remained free pending an appeal.

Vitishko was then arrested on a purportedly unrelated charge in early February 2014, just four days before the Games opened: Police said they'd received an anonymous tip that he'd been heard swearing in public. Vitishko was denied a request to phone his lawyer and jailed immediately for 15 days by a town judge who relied solely on the anonymous account. Court records show the source never turned up to testify; Vitishko's Sochi-based attorney, Alexander Popkov, says the no-show suggests there was no anonymous call to begin with. Nevertheless, Russian law allows judges to dole out so-called administrative sentences at their discretion, without the participation of defense lawyers or witnesses. "It's an excellent intimidation tactic," says Popkov.

The 15-day detention meant Vitishko would not be able to speak to the world's media as they descended on Sochi. It also guaranteed Vitishko would be stuck in jail for his February 12 appeal hearing. When the court date came, he was beamed in via a scratchy, barely audible video link. The judge deliberated for two minutes before issuing his ruling: The three-year prison camp sentence stood. A few days later, after a week of delays as venue after venue refused to host a launch event, EWNC finally managed to release Vitishko and Gazaryan's report.

Artem Alexeyev, a prominent Russian environmental and human rights lawyer who's not connected to the Vitishko case, says the sentence for graffiti "should have been a fine," according to Russian law and precedent. Being sent to prison camp for the offense, he says, was "positively beyond imagination."

Read more http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/sochi-environmental-activist-vitishko-putin-prison

[BainsBane]

1. Meanwhile peaceful protesters from the 2012 election

remain under indefinite psychiatric imprisonment.

Crackdowns on political dissent have escalated during the past couple of years, according to Human Rights Watch. http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/01/29/russia-leap-backward-rights

Then of course there are laws that make it a crime to engage in homosexual "propaganda" (meaning advocating for equal rights or pointing out the great composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was gay), while the state gives a pass to violent criminals who engage in hate violence against LGBT Russians.

But Putin is a hero to folks who don't give a shit about any of that, or, I suspect, actually admire it.

[newthinking]

2. Well, now you are proving that you are making false titles

He was not jailed for swearing.

It clearly says, even on your own text:

In June 2012, Vitishko and Gazaryan were sentenced to three years in prison on charges related to what is locally known as "the fence incident."

He was on parole for a previous incident where property defamation occurred and he was released on probation. As part of that probation he had to be home at night. The same thing would happen here. Parole officers and judges are very harsh in the US as well about violations.

Why can't you argue this in a more honest manner?

[uhnope]

3. Maybe, sir, you are having problems understanding the simple words in the title

The title is clear:
On probation for "graffiti" Russian dissident breaks probation by swearing in public: faces 3 years

On probation for the "fence incident." Okay so far?

Out of jail on probation/pending appeal. Check?

Then arrested because of an accusation of swearing, timed for the beginning of the Sochi Olympics, and kept in a prison camp ever since:

In June 2012, Vitishko and Gazaryan were sentenced to three years in prison on charges related to what is locally known as "the fence incident." But the court agreed to suspend the sentences, instead imposing a two-year probationary period. Gazarayan fled Russia later that year. In 2013, Vitishko was found to have broken the court's terms. His sentence was reinstated, but he remained free pending an appeal.

Vitishko was then arrested on a purportedly unrelated charge in early February 2014, just four days before the Games opened: Police said they'd received an anonymous tip that he'd been heard swearing in public. Vitishko was denied a request to phone his lawyer and jailed immediately for 15 days by a town judge who relied solely on the anonymous account. Court records show the source never turned up to testify; Vitishko's Sochi-based attorney, Alexander Popkov, says the no-show suggests there was no anonymous call to begin with. Nevertheless, Russian law allows judges to dole out so-called administrative sentences at their discretion, without the participation of defense lawyers or witnesses. "It's an excellent intimidation tactic," says Popkov.

The 15-day detention meant Vitishko would not be able to speak to the world's media as they descended on Sochi. It also guaranteed Vitishko would be stuck in jail for his February 12 appeal hearing. When the court date came, he was beamed in via a scratchy, barely audible video link. The judge deliberated for two minutes before issuing his ruling: The three-year prison camp sentence stood. A few days later, after a week of delays as venue after venue refused to host a launch event, EWNC finally managed to release Vitishko and Gazaryan's report.

Artem Alexeyev, a prominent Russian environmental and human rights lawyer who's not connected to the Vitishko case, says the sentence for graffiti "should have been a fine," according to Russian law and precedent. Being sent to prison camp for the offense, he says, was "positively beyond imagination."

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/sochi-environmental-activist-vitishko-putin-prison

You may not like people knowing that swearing in public is illegal in Putin's Russia and is used to put progressive environmental activists into prison, but it's true. It's a rather strange point to get picky about.

[newthinking]

5. I have provided the link. You are flat out wrong. People can read for themselves.

see the post below

[newthinking]

4. Here is a link (since you are calling me a liar in the duplicate you posted before)

From their own facebook page. It is elsewhere on the internet if you are actually interested in the truth.

"He ruled that two minor violations by Vitishko of his parole were “systematic”."

The lawyers are saying that the violations should not have put his sentence back in place. But that is very different than what you are claiming in the title.

I guarantee if you broke parole twice for any reason in the US you would be in jail in a minute. How naive are you?

I agree with Vitishko's cause. He is a good guy. The original sentence seemed harsh (we have our own activists that get harsh sentences and indeed that does not make it right).

But you are mis-presenting the facts.

http://m2.facebook.com/notes/environmental-watch-on-north-caucasus/a-message-to-the-ioc-about-evgeny-vitishko/10152296354538833/

[uhnope]

6. the doublethink going on here is Olympian in itself.

Your link confirms that Vitishko was persecuted and hounded for political reasons. It confirms that the parole violations led to him being back in a prison camp and that the punishment was disproportionate. The second violation was, according to my article, using bad words in public; yours doesn't say. In no way does your link contradict mine; your link supports the fact that Vitishko is a political prisoner (thank you!).

I don't even understand what is motivating your continued posts at this point--a stubbornness to admit you're wrong, even though you brought it up in the first place; a crusade to deny that swearing in public is illegal in Putin's Russia; or what? But thanks for the kick

We argue that Vitishko’s vocal opposition to the Olympic destruction was the reason behind the decision by the Tuapse judge on December 20 to turn it into a real sentence. He ruled that two minor violations by Vitishko of his parole were “systematic”. This is completely disproportionate. Vitishko’s parole was much stricter than that of other convicts with suspended sentences. He was constantly watched and stopped repeatedly by police. Conditions of his parole changed two times, and he successfully obeyed them, although it was not easy. Two violations over a course of 1.5 years is not ‘systematic’ in any fair court system, the only reason it was ruled as such was the authorities desire to put away a critic of the Olympic Games.

[geek tragedy]

8. But, people on the left MUST support Putin and Russia's government. That's what someone here told

us.