News: June 2004 Archives
Amnesty International, which earlier declared Igor Sutyagin a political prisoner, joined other academic and human rights organizations in supporting this campaign.
MOSCOW (AP) -- Five prominent human rights groups have called for a retrial for Igor Sutyagin, an arms control researcher who was convicted of espionage, and said the prisoner, meanwhile, should be freed.
Sutyagin was arrested in 1999 on charges he sold information on nuclear submarines and missile warning systems to a British company that Russian investigators claimed was a CIA cover. In April, a jury sentenced Sutyagin to 15 years in prison.
The five groups -- Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, the Public Committee for the Protection of Scientists and the Moscow Helsinki Group -- said Sutyagin had not gotten a fair trial.
Human Rights Watch press-release
Russia: Fair Retrial Needed in 'Spy' Case
Treason Conviction of Russian Scientist Appears to Be PoliticallyMotivated
(New York, June 2, 2004)-Igor Sutiagin, the Russian arms researcher convicted in April on what appear to be politically motivated treason charges, should be given a prompt retrial that meets international standards of fairness, five international and Russian human groups said today.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, the Moscow Helsinki Group, and the Public Committee for the Protection of Scientists also called on the Russian government to release Sutiagin from prison pending retrial.
"Sutiagin did not get a fair trial," said Rachel Denber, acting executive director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch. "The Russian government appears to be using his case to intimidate academics, journalists and others who do research on sensitive issues."
In April the Moscow City Court handed Sutiagin a 15-year sentence, the longest prison term for high treason since Soviet times. The Federal Security Service, or FSB, had accused Sutiagin of collecting materials on a variety of issues relating to Russia's weapons systems and other military issues, and passing them on to U.S. military intelligence officers. Sutiagin acknowledged that he gathered information on these topics, from open sources, for a U.K.-based consultancy firm on the basis of a legal freelance contract to supplement his meager academic salary.
The Sutiagin case is part of a broader pattern of dubious espionage charges brought against Russian citizens who were working with foreign contacts on sensitive issues that until recently had been under thorough KGB control. These issues include nuclear-waste dumping, environmental degradation, national defense preparedness and military technology.
In a joint statement issued today, the five human rights groups detailed concerns about the trial and investigation. The groups have documented due process violations in the handling of Sutiagin's case. In crucial instances, the FSB, (the successor to the KGB) sent the wrong documents to experts who were supposed to review Sutiagin's work to determine whether it was based on open sources. The presiding judge in the case and the composition of the jury were changed without explanation. The presiding judge excluded key questions of fact from the jury's deliberations.
"These violations are just the latest in a series of violations of Sutagin's rights, and they indicate a political motivation for his prosecution," said Denber.
Human Rights Watch's November 2003 briefing paper "Russia's 'Spy Mania': A Study of the Case of Igor Sutiagin," details some of the key due process violations in the prosecution of Sutiagin: vaguely formulated charges, a failure to identify secret sources from which Sutiagin received his materials, and the use of secret decrees. The briefing paper places the Sutiagin case in the broader context of so-called "spy mania" in Russia, a series of dubious espionage charges that has had a chilling effect on Russian journalists, scientists and ecologists.
"The Sutiagin case has emerged at a time when the Russian government is increasingly restricting civil and political rights and is increasingly hostile to human rights organizations trying to protect those rights, said Denber. "The international community needs to challenge these incursions and press Russia to reverse this backtracking."
Human Rights Watch and the other signatories of the joint statement urged the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to appoint Special Rapporteur for the case of Igor Sutiagin. The five human rights groups also urged the international community to raise his case at the highest level with the Russian government.
To read the joint statement, please see:
http://hrw.org/backgrounder/eca/russia/2004/igor_statement.htm
To read Human Rights Watch's briefing paper, please see:
http://hrw.org/backgrounder/eca/russia/index.htm
For more information, please contact:
In Moscow, Alexander Petrov: +7-095-737-8955
In New York, Diederik Lohman: +1-212-216-1282
In London, Urmi Shah: +44-20-7713-2788
In Brussels, Vanessa Saenen: +32-2-732-2009
234 Ford House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-6460
Rep. Christopher H. Smith, Chairman
Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Co-Chairman
For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Ben Anderson
202.225.1901
June 1, 2004
Helsinki Commission Leaders Urge President Bush to Raise Russian Rights Concerns
Putin Visit Opportunity to Press for Progress
(Washington) - The United States Helsinki Commission today released the text of a letter signed by Commission leaders addressed to President George W. Bush in conjunction with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s U.S. visit to attend the G8 Summit, set to open a week from today, in Sea Island, Georgia.
As noted at a May 20th Helsinki Commission hearing, President Putin is increasingly relying on the security-intelligence apparatus to run Russia, with ominous consequences for human rights, civil liberties and democratic progress. The leaders cited specific concerns over the targeting of a number of Russian academics and environmentalists; a ban on religious activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Russian capital; and egregious violations of international humanitarian law in Chechnya.
Begin text.
May 28, 2004
The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
We write urging you to raise human rights concerns in the Russian Federation when you meet with President Putin at the Sea Island G-8 Summit. As noted at a recent Helsinki Commission hearing, Mr. Putin is increasingly relying on the security-intelligence apparatus to run Russia, with ominous consequences for human rights, civil liberties and democratic progress.
One of the telling results has been what human rights activists are calling “spy mania,” whereby a number of academics and environmentalists have been accused of collaborating with Western intelligence agencies on the basis of questionable evidence and procedures. A case in point involves Igor Sutyagin, a researcher from the U.S. and Canada Institute, recently sentenced by a Moscow court to 15 years in hard labor for “espionage.” His “crime” was to pass scientific analyses based upon open source material to associates abroad. While his is not an isolated case, Sutyagin has received the harshest sentence to date. We urge you to raise this case as well as the broader trend.
In another troubling trend, a recent Moscow municipal court ruling effectively bans the religious activities of the local community of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Russian capital. This case should set off alarm bells for members of other religious minorities in Moscow and beyond. There has also been heightened rhetoric by Russian officials with frequent references to so-called “traditional religions,” which raises serious concerns over the status of individuals belonging to “minority” religious communities in Russia (many of whom have existed in Russia for over a century).
Government pressure on electronic media outlets, denunciations by government officials of human rights and pro-democracy NGOs, and manipulations of elections give further rise for concern. President Putin is well positioned to reverse these troubling trends away from protection of human rights, civil liberties and democratic progress and toward governance based upon the misguided notion of so-called “managed democracy.”
Finally, we reiterate longstanding concerns regarding developments in Chechnya where the most egregious violations of international humanitarian law anywhere in the OSCE region are occurring. President Putin’s efforts to manipulate political developments in Chechnya have failed to move the region toward normalization, as evidenced by the recent assassination of his handpicked leader for the region. Besides alleviating the grave humanitarian situation in Chechnya, President Putin should move to allow the Chechen people to have a voice and choice in their future, while preserving the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation.
Mr. President, we urge you to set aside a portion of your time with President Putin to discuss these particularly disturbing developments in the Russian Federation.
Sincerely,
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, M.C.
Chairman
BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL, U.S.S.
Co-Chairman
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, M.C.
Ranking Member
cc: Dr. Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor
End Text.
The United States Helsinki Commission, an independent federal agency, by law monitors and encourages progress in implementing provisions of the Helsinki Accords. The Commission, created in 1976, is composed of nine Senators, nine Representatives and one official each from the Departments of State, Defense, and Commerce.
