Committee for Defense of Scientists appeals to the U.S. Congress
To the US House of Representatives
To the Speaker of the House Mr. Dennis Hastert
To the Senate Majority Leader Mr. William Frist
To the Co-Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe in the US Congress Mr. Christopher Smith
A country in which there are political prisoners
cannot consider itself democratic.
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The authoritative international organization
Amnesty International recognized Igor Sutyagin
as a political prisoner.
***
Dear Congressmen!
Dear Mr. Speaker!
On April 7, 2004, the Moscow City Court (judge Marina Komarova) sentenced an employee of the USA and Canada Institute, Igor Vyacheslav Sutyagin, charged by the Federal Security Service (FSB) with spying for the USA, to 15 years in prison.
The investigation, accusatory documents and legal proceedings were classified. The sentencing turned out to be confidential as well, contrary to all of the laws of the Russian Federation.
We consider it imperative to mention that the fabrication by the FSB of cases with serious charges of high treason and disclosure of state secrets has become a routine occurrence. In the past few years, the following people have been subjected to charges on these grounds: declared prisoners of conscience- ecologist Alexander Nikitin and journalist Grigory Pasko, journalists Konstantin Sterlegin, Konstantin Bakharev; professors Viktor Akulichev, Vladimir Soyfer, Anatoly Babkin; scientist and diplomat Valentin Moiseev; scientists Valentin Danilov, Igor Sutyagin, Vladimir Shurov, Yuri Khvorostov; inventor Valery Kovalchuk; lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin; businessman Viktor Kalyadin.
The case of the American citizen John Tobbin is well known; he was charged with espionage at first, but then the case was re-categorized as drug trafficking. The case of American Edmond Pope, who received 20 years in prison and was immediately pardoned by the President of Russia, was questionable from the point of view of the evidence and logic.
The General Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation is also involved in the process of political persecutions. On its initiative, the prominent businessmen Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev found themselves behind bars on account of political motives (arrest for economic crimes prior to a trial by Russian legislation is not provided for).
The political arbitrariness of the FSB and the Office of the Public Prosecutor is carried out in public, but Russian society is unable to prevent it. The instruments for protecting society’s rights, most importantly, independent courts, have been taken away. Demands for open and objective examinations of cases come up against a collective guarantee: the FSB – the Office of the Public Prosecutor – the courts. The FSB is rapidly turning into the same type of instrument of political investigation that the KGB was. For the time being, political repressions in Russia have a selective character, but if they are not ended, then Russian special forces will be able to develop extensive repressions in the absence of a system of political checks.
Attempts to secure examinations of infringements on the rights of the accused in such cases in the independent European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg do not thus far make it possible to speak of its effectiveness, since the cases are not considered for years; this convinces employees of the special forces to fabricate cases about espionage and disclosure of state secrets in full impunity. Judges, carrying out harsh sentences for fabricated cases, consider themselves protected from accountability for compact with the investigation and prosecution. Public prosecutors, supporting the fabricated accusations, are also found in full safety.
The majority of the “spy” cases arose in 1998-1999, when Vladimir Putin ascended to the peak of governmental power. At that time, he always actively supported the position of the FSB.
These are the words of V. Putin from an interview in “Komsomolskaya Pravda” (July 8, 1999): “Unfortunately, foreign special forces, besides their diplomatic cover, use various ecological and public organizations very actively in their work.” This is a direct indication of a search for spies among public organizations!
Speaking about Pasko, Moiseev, and Nikitin, V. Putin mentioned: “Yes, there is a lot of sensation surrounding these individuals as usual. But, I believe, that in the given situations our department (the FSB) is acting out of governmental interests…We work, as they say, only according to the facts. By the way, the Moiseev case is exactly such a situation. And it’s unimportant, which intelligence service he worked for – South Korean or North Korean."
Long before the court decision, Vladimir Putin took responsibility upon himself for the extra-legal prosecution of Moiseev for espionage, publicly stating that he worked for a foreign intelligence service. This was a direct instruction to the prosecutor and the court.
The director of the FSB Nikolai Patrushev (in an interview with “Komsomolskaya Pravda,” December 19, 2000) stated: “In October of 1999, Sutyagin, an employee of the USA and Canada Institute, was arrested. In the course of the investigation, facts were revealed regarding the spy activities of his contact – the American citizen Joshua Handler, a specialist in nuclear security, who is now in the US. Beforehand it was established, that Handler received confidential information from Sutyagin about Russian armed forces and communicated it to US intelligence services.”
This was said long before the trial against Sutyagin, and in spite of facts that were already well-known at the time. Towards the moment of the publication of Patrushev’s interview, two experts were already detained in the case regarding the fact that there were no secrets or confidential facts in the information that Handler received from Sutyagin. This was attached to the decision of the investigation to remove all charges from Sutyagin in connection with this episode – moreover, this was carried out in October of 2000, two months before Patrushev’s interview.
This summons the full perplexity of the conviction of the President of the Russian Federation that contact with foreigners is a criminal offense. These are the words of the President: “First of all, I endorse Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov (at that moment – Head of the Government) concerning his remarks addressed to members of the Government, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs. If the Minister of Foreign Affairs were to be discovered supporting contacts with representatives of foreign governments outside the limits of his official duties, then he, just like other members of the Government, deputies of the State Duma, leaders of factions, and just like all other citizens of the Russian Federation, would be subjected to certain procedures in accordance with Russian criminal codes. And I must say, that these final measures, which are being carried out in the Federal Security Service, tell us that this is entirely possible.” (From a speech given on April 19, 2000 in the State Duma).
Under these “final measures” at that time was implied the persecution of Grigory Pasko and a number of scientists, including Igor Sutyagin.
Such a pronouncement of the president is a direct instruction to persecute for contact with foreigners.
Although there are still no laws about criminal accountability for contact with foreigners in Russia in the 21st century, criminal persecution for contact with foreigners already exists! To give “legality” to the persecutions, the FSB constructs charges of espionage and disclosure of state secrets.
In this connection the attention should be brought to the definition of the high treason in the form of espionage itself in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Article 275): “disclosure of official secrets, or assistance otherwise provided to a foreign state, a foreign organization, or their representatives, by way of hostile activities undermining the external security of the Russian Federation, committed by a Russian citizen (thick letters by authors). With such flexible wording almost any information passed to a foreigner can be interpreted by an ill-wisher from the FSB as a “espionage”. That exactly what happens in reality.
All of the cases of the past several years are well-known to us, and we are convinced of the full innocence of our compatriots, whose names are listed in this appeal.
Unfortunately, the government in our country today is such, that an objective examination of matters that touch on the interests of special forces is impossible. In our country it is also impossible to conduct congressional hearings in order to demand real evidence of guilt in such cases from the FSB. It is entirely sufficient for the court to have a declaration from the FSB, which is considered to be evidence.
Knowing the adherence of the USA to democratic principles, we ask American legislators to conduct hearings in Congress on the case of Igor Sutyagin and others, persecuted in Russia because of political motives, in order to attract the attention of the world society and the authorities of democratic countries to this problem.
Yours sincerely,
Lyudmila Alexeeva,
Moscow Helsinki Group
Elena Bonner, Andrei Sakharov Foundation
Vitaly Ginzburg, Nobel Prize laureate, RAS academician
Sergei Kovalev, prisoner of conscience,
Institute of Human Rights
Alexander Nikitin, prisoner of conscience,
«Ecological and Human Rights Center «Belluna»
Yuri Rizhov, RAS academician
Yuri Samodurov,
Andrei Sakharov Museum and Public Center
Grigory Pasko, prisoner of conscience, journalist
Lev Ponomarev,
All-Russian Public Movement “For Human Rights”
Ernst Cherny, executive secretary of the
Public Committee for Protection of Scientists
Gleb Yakunin, priest, prisoner of conscience,
Committee for the Protection of the Freedom of Conscience
