SOCHI, Russia (AP) — The International Olympic Committee says it’s has been assured that a Russian activist’s three-year prison sentence was not related to his criticism of the environmental impact of Olympic construction in Sochi.

The IOC had asked for clarification after Yevgeny Vitishko was sentenced earlier this week for spray-painting a fence on a property in a forest where construction is banned. Vitishko had been critical of the Olympic construction projects in Sochi and Human Rights Watch urged the IOC to press Russian authorities to free him.