Subject: The human rights violations in the Nikitin case may go on forever
The human rights violations in the Nikitin case may go on forever
=================================================================
Five months ago on December 14, 1996, Nikitin was released from the KGB detention centre in St. Petersburg where he spent 10 months in custody accused of high treason through espionage. Nikitin still remains in city arrest in St. Petersburg and receives information about the development in his case only through press statements made by the Russian secret police FSB (former KGB) and the St. Petersburg Prosecutor's Office, or through letters to members of the Russian Parliament. He is still charged of high treason and espionage.
The actions carried out by FSB and the Procurator's Office in St. Petersburg in this case demonstrate that the state of justice in Russia is under serious threat. Old forces within the secret police and their allies in the Prosecuting Offices have for the last two years carried out a campaign against openness and freedom of speech within Russia.
The Nikitin case is the most well-known, but unfortunately it is not unique.
According to Nikitin's lawyer Yury Shmidt, Russian legislation does not limit the term of additional investigations, as long as the accused is released from custodial confinement. So far the most important human rights violations in the Nikitin case are as follows:
* The prosecuting authorities in Russia represented by the Prosecutor's office in St. Petersburg and FSB has in letters and countless interviews in the press stated that Nikitin is guilty of espionage and various other serious offences. This is a gross violation of the principle that a person accused of a punishable offence shall be considered innocent until proven guilty.
* The investigation of Nikitin's case has been unfair and cannot establish the truth. The Director of FSB Mr. Kovalyov, the Head of the FSB Investigation Department Mr. Galkin and the Head of the St. Petersburg FSB Department Mr. Cherkesov have in public claimed that Mr.Nikitin is a spy and a criminal. This makes it impossible for the subordinate investigators within the St. Petersburg FSB department to come up with a different conclusion.
* After 19 months of investigation Nikitin still does not know exactly what he has been accused of. He does not know what secrets he is supposed to have disclosed and he has not been allowed to see the classified decrees he is supposed to have violated.
* It took two months from Nikitin was arrested until he got his own lawyer. A special decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation overruled FSB and the Prosecutor's Office in St. Petersburg ban on Nikitin's right to have a lawyer of his own choosing.
* Nikitin is not allowed to meet his colleagues in the Bellona Foundation. Since October 10 1996 Bellona has been an organisation non grata in Russia. This has caused severe difficulties for the defence and is a violation of Nikitin's right to defend him self.
* Nikitin's case was two times illegally transferred to a military court. Again it took a special ruling of the Russian Supreme Court that gave strict orders to the Prosecutor's Office in St. Petersburg to transfer the case to a civilian court.
* When the order to release Nikitin from custody came from the Prosecutor General's Office in Moscow in December 1996, the St. Petersburg FSB Department and the Prosecutors Office in St. Petersburg tried through falsification of documents to fordate the filing of the lawsuit and thus to keep Nikitin in prison.
They even locked up Nikitin's lawyer Mr. Schmidt for two and a half hour in an attempt to carry out their illegal activities.
It was not until the Prosecutor General of Russia Mr. Skuratov personally interfered that Nikitin was released.
* FSB has unlawfully introduced its own censorship on printed materials. It has issued an order that the report Nikitin wrote together with Bellona is forbidden to distribute in Russia. 1500 copies of the report mailed to the address of St. Petersburg-based human rights organisation "Citizens Watch" were confiscated by the customs in St. Petersburg.
The report is the only forbidden book in Russia today. In normal democratic countries only courts can censor books.
Retired Naval officer Alexander Nikitin was arrested in February 1996, accused of high treason through espionage after co-authoring the Bellona report The Russian Northern Fleet - Sources to radioactive Contamination. Due to lack of evidence of any crime committed by Nikitin, he was released from solitary confinement in December 1996. In January 1997 the Prosecutor General transferred the case back to the FSB for additional investigations. No one knows how long time FSB will use on the additional investigations, but it seem like it can take months and years.
How to take action
------------------
You can help. Public pressure helped get Aleksandr Nikitin released from a prison where few had ever returned without a stay in Siberia.
Public pressure can bring justice. Write to the Russian authorities (the addresses are on the page with the sample letter) and demand that Aleksandr Nikitin should not be persecuted for being an environmentalist. Demand that international treaties on human rights and the constitution of Russia is respected.
You can write your own letter or use this sample letter:
SAMPLE LETTER
To be sure that letters arrive both at the political and juridical bodies, letters should go to both addresses below. Copies of your letters should go to your local Russian embassy or consulate. Please write this, or a similar letter to:
Russian General Procurator
Yuri Skuratov
B. Dmitrovka 15A
103793 Moscow
RUSSIA
Or fax: +7 095 292 0779 or +7 095 925 1879 or +7 095 292 8848
and
President of the Russian Federation
Boris N. Yeltsin
The Kremlin
Moscow
RUSSIA
Or fax: +7 095 206 5173
Dear ...............................
On behalf of my organisation I am writing to urge you to see that the charges against Aleksandr Nikitin are reviewed for their legitimacy. My Organisation considers Aleksandr Nikitin to be a hero not a criminal.
Mr. Nikitin's arrest and detention, the campaign raised against him in the press by the FSB and the Procurators office in St. Petersburg, and the current restriction on his freedom violate internationally accepted human rights. I urge you to ensure that the constitution of Russia is respected and that the case is transferred from the FSB and the Procurator's office in St. Petersburg to the General Procurators office of the Russian Federation.
FSB insists that Nikitin disclosed state secrets in contributing to the report by the Norwegian environmental group Bellona, The Russian Northern Fleet -- Sources of Radioactive Contamination. Amnesty International and many other international experts have declared that Bellona and Nikitin are right when they claim that all their information comes from open sources - a fact that FSB investigators just refuse to verify.
Mr. President, the nuclear waste Soviet Union dumped in the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, and the problematic storage facilities Russia has inherited from the Soviet Union, is not a solely domestic issue. It can have disastrous implications for other countries sharing these waters.
Russian environmentalists play a critical role in addressing these and other environmental issues. Your government as well as that of other countries working on environmental issues, must help protect and encourage these efforts. The FSB's secrecy around environmental issues, and the arrest and harassment of Aleksandr Nikitin, threaten co-operative efforts of Russia and the rest of the world, and stunt the growth of Russia's civil society.
Citizen participation in government decision-making is indeed the key to environmental protection. In order for people world-wide to take action to protect their environment, their rights concerning political participation, the freedom to speak and organise -- must be recognised and respected by their governments. Environmental activists must also be free from the threat of retaliation.
Regards, Frederic Hauge // The Bellona Foundation
-------------------------------------------------
Fax: +47 22383862 Phone: +47 22382410
Snail mail: BELLONA, Box 2141 Grunerlokka, N-0505 Oslo, Norway
Email: bellona@sn.no (bellona@euronetis.no is obsolete)
WWW: http://www.grida.no/ngo/bellona/ (ends with a slash)
Nikitin: http://www.grida.no/ngo/bellona/nikitin.htm
