Russian Environmentalists Threatened with Prison Sentences
On August 2nd, 2012, Suren Gazaryan and Evgeny Vitishko, environmental activists working with the non-profit Environmental Watch on North Caucasus in Russia, were arrested on charges of hooliganism. Their crime? Writing the message, “This is our forest” on an illegal government fence on public lands near the Black Sea shoreline in the Krasnodar region of the North Cacuacus. The fence obstructed public access to lands with no supposed access restrictions. Gazaryan and Vitishko have since been convicted of the hooliganism charge and are currently serving three-year suspended sentences that restrict their travel and impose curfews. Russian authorities have continued to harrass the two men in an attempt to force them to cease all protest and community organizing activities. Recently, a second probe has been launched against Suren Gazaryen on charges of attempted murder of the security guards that accosted the two men near the illegal fence. The three armed and trained security guards are accusing Gazaryen, who was unarmed, of threatening them and causing them to fear for their safety. A conviction would convert the suspended sentence into a real prison sentence for the peaceful environmental activist. The EWNC is calling Suren Ghazaryen an "ecological prisoner" because of the persecution he has received for his environmental activism. They are asking for everyone to support Suren Gazaryen and Evgeny Vitishko in their legal struggles.. Find more information about the environmental activists and the EWNC on Facebook and on their website.