]]>In April, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called on the Russian authorities to “use all available legal means” to release Igor Sutiagin, Valentin Danilov and Mikhail Trepashkin. The parliamentarians expressed concern about the authorities’ failure to meet international fair trial standards and about alleged inadequate medical treatment.
- Igor Sutiagin, sentenced in 2004 to 15 years’ imprisonment for espionage, spent three months in a punishment cell, for reportedly being in possession of a mobile phone in the prison colony.
Political Prisoners and Detainees
Human rights organizations and activists have identified various individuals as political prisoners: Zara Murtazaliyeva, Valentin Danilov, Igor Sutyagin, Mikhail Khodorkovskiy, Platon Lebedev, and Svetlana Bakhmina. All remained imprisoned at the end of the year. Mikhail Trepashkin, previously identified by some observers as a political prisoner, was released this year.
[...]
Valentin Danilov was serving a 13-year sentence for allegedly transferring classified technology to China. Colleagues and supporters asserted that the information in question was declassified over a decade ago, leading some human rights organizations to consider Danilov's case to be politically motivated. In 2004 the Supreme Court overturned a 2003 jury acquittal, and Danilov was retried by a judge and convicted. Danilov has appealed to the ECHR, and in January 2006 Danilov's defense appealed the verdict to the Presidium of the Supreme Court. Neither court had responded to the appeals by the end of this year. Danilov also applied for a pardon, but on June 7, the Presidential Pardon Commission declined to pardon Danilov because he had not admitted his guilt.
Igor Sutyagin, a disarmament researcher with the Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was convicted in 2004 on espionage-related charges and was serving a 15-year sentence in a maximum security prison for allegedly passing classified information about Russia's nuclear weapons to a London‑based firm. Sutyagin and human rights groups claimed that he had no access to classified information, and that the government sought a severe sentence to discourage others from sharing sensitive information with other countries. Amnesty International has deemed Sutyagin a political prisoner, and other domestic and international human rights groups raised concerns that the charges were politically motivated and that there were problems in the conduct of the trial and the lengthy sentence. In 2005 Sutyagin was transferred to a colony in Arkhangelsk Oblast, which was further from his family than his previous detention place in Udmurtiya. Sutyagin appealed to the Supreme Court and the ECHR in 2006; the appeals were pending at the end of the year. On April 19, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed a resolution urging Russia to release Sutyagin. In June the Presidential Pardon Commission declined to pardon Sutyagin because he had not admitted guilt.
[...]
Academic Freedom and Cultural Events
The government did not restrict academic freedom; however, human rights and academic organizations questioned whether the convictions of Igor Sutyagin, Valentin Danilov, and others inhibited academic freedom and contact with foreigners on subjects that the authorities might deem sensitive.
In May prosecutors in Novosibirsk dropped their case against rocket scientist Oleg Korobeinichev, who had been accused of disclosing state secrets for participating in a foreign research grant program. In July the deputy head of the Prosecutor's Office publicly apologized to Korobeinichev for any damage that may have been caused by falsely accusing him.
See also the 2006 Report
]]>[...]
Even more strained was the case against Igor Sutyagin, a researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences' prestigious Institute for the Study of the United States and Canada, who was accused of illicitly disclosing details about Russia's nuclear posture. His "spying," too, amounted to a paper he had written based on open-source information (including speeches by Russia's own defense minister). Yet that didn't prevent a court from handing down a 15-year sentence.
[...]
]]>"He was sent into solitary confinement for three months supposedly because a phone was found on him. I question this and treat [the punishment] as an attempt to put pressure on Sutyagin," Anna Stavitskaya, a lawyer for the scientist, told Interfax.
Sutyagin is serving his sentence in the Arkhangelsk maximum-security penal colony.
"Sutyagin is a very prudent person and he would not have run such a risk, given that the issue of his pardon is being considered," the lawyer said.
Earlier, human rights activists, scientists and prominent Russian public figures had asked the Russian authorities to grant a pardon to Sutyagin, she said.
"We visited him on February 1 and discussed the issue of sending a plea for a pardon through the penal colony's administration. I link the incident to the fact that pressure is being put on him so that he either confess, or drop his appeal to the European Court," the lawyer said.
Sutyagin was put into solitary confinement on February 4, 2007, the lawyer said.
]]>Political Prisoners and Detainees
Human rights organizations and activists have identified various individuals as political prisoners: Zara Murtazaliyeva, Mikhail Trepashkin, Valentin Danilov, Igor Sutyagin, Mikhail Khodorkovskiy, Platon Lebedev, and Svetlana Bakhmina. All remained imprisoned at the end of the year.
[...]
In 2004 the Supreme Court overturned the 2003 jury acquittal of Valentin Danilov, who had been charged with spying for China while working on a commercial contract. Allegedly, Danilov's activities in China involved the transfer of classified technological knowledge that would assist China's military goals, and divulge secrets concerning an electron accelerator at Krasnoyarsk University. Colleagues and supporters asserted that the information in question was declassified over a decade ago, leading some human rights organizations to consider Danilov's case to be politically motivated. In 2004 Danilov was convicted by a judge and sentenced to 14 years. In June 2005 the Supreme Court reduced his sentence to 13 years. In January 2006 Danilov's defense appealed the verdict to the Presidium of the Supreme Court. Danilov also had an appeal before the European Court of Human Rights. Neither had responded to the appeals by the end of this year. In December 2006 Danilov's defense lawyers said he was planning to appeal to the Pardon Commission of Krasnoyarsk Kray because his health is getting worse.
In August 2005 the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Igor Sutyagin, a disarmament researcher with the US and Canada Institute, of his conviction on espionage-related charges. Prosecutors accused Sutyagin of passing classified information about the country's nuclear weapons to a London‑based firm. In 2001 the Kaluga Regional Court ruled that the evidence did not support the charges against Sutyagin and returned the case to the prosecutor for further investigation. In 2002 the ECHR registered Sutyagin's appeal and in March 2004 the decision was made to view Sutyagin's case in priority order. In April 2004 a Moscow city court found Sutyagin guilty and sentenced him to 15 years in a maximum security facility (the sentence included time served since his arrest in 1999). Also in April 2004, Amnesty International recognized Sutyagin as a political prisoner. Sutyagin claimed the Moscow city court's decision was unjust and insisted that he had no access to confidential information. Some observers agreed that he had no access to classified information and described the severe sentence as an effort to discourage citizens from sharing sensitive information with professional colleagues from other countries. Government officials asserted that Sutyagin had wittingly or unwittingly entered into a paid arrangement with a foreign intelligence service. Because of the conduct of the trial and lengthy sentence, a number of domestic and international human rights NGOs, in addition to Amnesty International, raised concerns that the charges were politically motivated. In 2005 Sutyagin was transferred to a colony in Arkhangelsk Oblast, which is even further from his family than his previous detention place in Udmurtiya, and his attorneys were reportedly appealing the move. In June 2006Sutyagin's defense appealed the verdict to the Presidium of the Supreme Court but there was no information on the decision of the Presidium available at year's end. In May 2006 ECHR sent 20 questions to the Russian government regarding Sutyagin's case.
On June 9,2006, the Public Chamber Commission on Control over Law Enforcement Bodies, Power Structures, and Legal System Reform made a decision to send President Putin an appeal for pardon of Danilov and Sutyagin. However, Anatoliy Kucherena, head of the Commission, told a Moscow radio station that the Public Chamber eventually decided against addressing President Putin with the request to pardon Danilov and Sutyagin. The decision was based on the rule that the president cannot be asked to pardon someone before that person has appealed for pardon himself.
[...]
Academic Freedom and Cultural Events
The government did not restrict academic freedom; however, human rights and academic organizations questioned whether the convictions of Sutyagin, Danilov, and others inhibited academic freedom and contact with foreigners on subjects that the authorities might deem sensitive (see section 1.e.). This trend continued during the year as the renowned scientist Oleg Korobeinichev, an employee of the Institute for Chemical Kinetics and Combustion, was charged with disclosing state secrets to a foreign government. In December Novosibirsk investigators completed the probe into the case of Korobeinichev. The case brought against Korobeinichev has been passed to the court.
]]>Heidi Ledford
news @ nature.com Published online: 25 October 2006; | doi:10.1038/news061023-10
[...]
Russia: Igor Sutyagin
Russian federal officers came for Igor Sutyagin on 27 October 1999. A researcher for the Institute of USA and Canada Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Sutyagin's speciality was military policy and nuclear weapons.
The Russian Federal Security Service arrested Sutyagin and charged him with treason and espionage, alleging that he provided classified information to a UK consulting firm. Sutyagin protested that all of the data he provided could be found in the public domain.
Sutyagin's trial started, stopped, and changed judges and juries repeatedly for over four years until he was convicted in April 2004 and sentenced to 15 years in prison, which he is now serving.
Sutyagin's friend Pavel Podvig, a military-policy researcher at Stanford University in California, says the trial never established that Sutyagin had accessed classified information. "The jury was never asked if the prosecutor had proved that the information was secret," says Podvig. "The questions were all very nonspecific."
]]>The committee – which was looking into cases concerning espionage or divulging state secrets in all 46 Council of Europe member states – also expressed concern that the German, Swiss and Italian, as well as US, authorities had recently threatened, or even attempted to prosecute media editors, journalists or other “whistleblowers” for alleged breaches of official secrecy, in particular in the context of recent reports on unlawful CIA activities. It cited the Shayler and “Spycatcher” cases in the United Kingdom and the Schirra case in Germany.
“Legislation on official secrecy in many Council of Europe member states is rather vague or otherwise overly broad in that it could be construed in such a way as to cover a wide range of legitimate activities of journalists, scientists, lawyers or other human rights defenders,” the committee said.
The draft resolution calls on member states and the European Court of Human Rights to “find an appropriate balance between the State interest in preserving official secrecy on the one hand and freedom of expression, the free flow of information on scientific matters, and society’s interest in exposing abuses of power on the other hand”.
The report, which contains detailed analysis of several cases, is likely to be debated by parliamentarians from the 46 member states at a forthcoming plenary session of the Assembly.
]]>In August [2004] the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Igor Sutyagin, a disarmament researcher with the US and Canada Institute, against his conviction for espionage related charges. Prosecutors accused Sutyagin of passing classified information about the country's nuclear weapons to a London‑based firm, but the Kaluga regional court ruled in 2001 that the evidence presented by the prosecutor did not support the charges brought against him and returned the case to the prosecutor for further investigation. In April 2004 a Moscow city court found Sutyagin guilty and sentenced him to 14 years in a maximum security facility (the sentence included time served since his arrest in October 1999). Sutyagin claimed the decision was unjust and insisted that he had no access to confidential information. Some observers agreed that he had no access to classified information and described the severe sentence as an effort to discourage citizens from sharing sensitive information with professional colleagues from other countries. Russian government officials asserted that Sutyagin had wittingly or unwittingly entered into a paid arrangement with a foreign intelligence service. Because of the conduct of the trial and lengthy sentence, a number of domestic and international human rights NGOs raised concerns that the charges were politically motivated. At year's end Sutyagin was allegedly in a penal facility in Arkhangelsk Oblast and his attorneys were reportedly appealing the move.
]]>Igor Vyacheslovich Sutyagin
163050, Arkhangelsk
Ul. Pirsovaya, d. 27
FGU IK-1, 5 otryad
RUSSIA
You can also download a pdf file with the mailing label in Russian.
Please, do not send any parcels and packages, for this could prevent Igor from getting parcels from his family.
]]>Chancellor of Austria Wolfgang Schussel
Prime Minister of Belgium Guy Verhofstadt
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair
Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel
Prime Minister of Denmark Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Prime Minister of Spain Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero
Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi
Prime Minister of Latvia Aigars Kalvitis
Prime Minister of Lithuania Algirdas Brazauskas
Prime Minister of Luxembourg Jean Claude Juncker
Prime Minister of the Netherlands Jan Peter Balkenende
Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg
President of Poland Lech Kaczynski
President of the United States of America George Bush
Prime Minister of Finland Matti Vanhanen
President of France Jacques Chirac
President of Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus
Prime Minister of Sweden Goran Persson
We, the representatives of Russian human rights organizations, scientific, cultural and political figures, establish with alarm the fact that politically motivated processes going on in Russia obviously point out at the real danger of mass persecutions of dissenters, revival of unlawfulness and suppression of civil rights.
This danger followed President Putin and his KGB-coworkers’ arrival at the highest echelons of power: today these people occupy the majority of the country’s leading positions. It is at the time of their functioning mass politically motivated persecutions became reality, when citizens are charged with state treason, divulgence of State secrets and economic offences on the basis of evidence concocted by the FSB or the Prosecutor’s office. Nowadays there is no more doubt as to the fact of suppression of democratic institutions and repartition of property in Russia, performed by “forces agencies” and courts. Lawyers are also subject to unexampled persecutions and accusations.
Within the past few years, the following persons became victims of far-fetched criminal persecutions: Alexander Nikitin (ecologist), Grigoriy Pasko (journalist), Nikolay Tschur (ecologist), Victor Kalyadin (entrepreneur), Vladimir Soyfer (scientist), Valentin Moiseev (diplomat and scientist), Igor Sutyagi (scientist), Valentin Danilov (scientist), Anatoliy Babkin (scientist), Juriy Khvorostov (scientist), Vladimir Schurov (scientist), Victor Akulichev (scientist), Victor Kovalchuk (inventor), John Tobbin (probationer), Sergey Brovchenko (lawyer), Olga Tsepilova (sociologist), environmental organization “Baykalskaya Volna”, Zara Murtazalieva (student), activists of the National Bolshevik Party (NBP), Mikhail Khodorkovskiy (entrepreneur), Platon Lebedev (entrepreneur), Svetlana Bakhmina (lawyer), Mikhail Trepashkin (lawyer), Oscar Kaybyshev (scientist)… Hundreds and thousands of people have fallen victims to unlawful and arbitrary actions of authorities in different regions of Russia, including Bashkiriya and Chechnya. These days, the number of people persecuted for political reasons has amounted to that of the USSR.
In our view, one of the main reasons for escalation of antidemocratic processes in Russia is an inert and inconsistent feedback of the heads of the European countries with regard to mass violations of human rights in Russia.
We invite the heads of the European Union countries, authoritative international organizations as well as human rights community to demand in an open and explicit way that the Russian Federation fulfills every legal and humanitarian obligation assumed by it, including the Helsinki Convention. The issue of observance of human rights in Russia is related to the European security and is as urgent as it was 30 years ago.
At the background of numerous violations of democratic norms and human rights in Russia, particular cruelty and sophistication features processes against scientists Igor Sutyagin and Valentin Danilov, lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin, student Zara Murtazalieva, as well as entrepreneurs Mikhail Khodorkovskiy and Platon Lebedev. All of them were convicted by “pocket” courts, without any legally significant proof of their guilt underlying their conviction.
The main reason for criminal persecution of Mr. Khodorkovskiy and Mr. Lebedev is their open and active support of political and civil opposition. In our view, their arrest, detention and unlawful conviction were accompanied by such circumstances, which are meant to act as the Kremlin’s warning to anyone dissenting from the official opinion.
We are convinced of the fact that Mr. Sutyagin, Mr. Danilov, Mr. Trepashkin, Ms. Murtazalieva, Mr. Khodorkovskiy and Mr. Lebedev’s conviction was politically motivated and is meant as a deterrent regarding the society in general and Russian intelligentsia in particular.
The European Union countries and their heads have adopted a tolerant attitude towards a repressive system established in Russia, omnipotence of special services, judiciary that is dependent upon the executive power and Mr. Putin personally, who is the ideologist of a cruel suppression of the opposition. Such attitude is nurturing new dictators in Europe.
We ask you to facilitate the recognition of Mr. Danilov, Mr. Trepashkin, Ms. Murtazalieva, Mr. Khodorkovskiy and Mr. Lebedev as political prisoners. We invite you to avail yourselves of all powers at your disposal in order to influence President Putin as well as the corresponding structures of the Council of Europe, so that a speedy, impartial and open re-trial of the cases of Mr. Sutyagin, Mr. Danilov, Mr. Trepashkin, Ms. Murtazalieva, Mr. Khodorkovskiy and Mr. Lebedev be ensured.
We hope that democratic governments will do their best to prevent Russia from stumbling into its totalitarian past with a dictatorial regime, which is as dangerous for the country itself as for the international community in general.
Yours sincerely,
Yuriy Afanasyev, President of the Russian State Humanitarian University
Lyudmila Alekseeva, Moscow Helsinki Group
Andrey Babushkin, public charity foundation “For civil rights”
Svetlana Gannushkina, Committee of assistance to refugees “Civil assistance”
Vitaliy Ginzburg, Academician, RAS; Nobel Prize winner
Vladimir Kara-Murza, journalist
Garri Kasparov, United Civil Front, world chess champion
Sergey Kovalev, Human Rights Institute, prisoner of conscience
Grigoriy Pasko, journalist, prisoner of conscience
Lev Ponomarev, All-Russian movement “For human rights”
Yuriy Ryzhov, Academician, RAS; National Prize and President of Russia Prize winner
Vladimir Ryzhkov, Republican Party leader, deputy of the RF State Duma
Yuriy Samodurov, Andrei Sakharov Museum and Public Center
Aleksey Simonov, Glasnost Defense Foundation
Aleksandr Tkachenko, Russian PEN-center, director general; writer
Lyudmila Ulitskaya, writer
Ernst Cherniy, head of the Ecology and Human Rights Coalition.
Aleksey Yablokov, Academician, RAS; leader of “Green Russia” party, Center for Russian Environmental Policy
Rev. Gleb Yakunin, Public Committee in Defense of Freedom of Conscience
We are convinced of the fact that Mr. Sutyagin, Mr. Danilov, Mr. Trepashkin, Ms. Murtazalieva, Mr. Khodorkovskiy and Mr. Lebedev’s conviction was politically motivated and is meant as a deterrent regarding the society in general and Russian intelligentsia in particular.
The European Union countries and their heads have adopted a tolerant attitude towards a repressive system established in Russia, omnipotence of special services, judiciary that is dependent upon the executive power and Mr. Putin personally, who is the ideologist of a cruel suppression of the opposition. Such attitude is nurturing new dictators in Europe.
Among those who signed the letter are Lyudmila Alekseeva, Moscow Helsinki Group, Vitaliy Ginzburg, Academician, Nobel Prize winner, Garri Kasparov, United Civil Front, world chess champion, Grigoriy Pasko, journalist, and others.
(Full text of the letter in Russian and in English.)
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