AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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AAAS Human Rights Action Network

FACTS OF THE CASE:

As part of what has been referred to as a "Russian Federal Security Services (FSB) offensive against the environmental movement," FSB agents arrested Alexander Nikitin on 6 February 1996. Nikitin, who has spent 14 weeks in prison, was arrested in connection with his work for the Norwegian Ecological Foundation Bellona. Although Nikitin had finalized arrangements to immigrate to Canada, he was deprived of his passport in November 1995. At the time of his arrest, Nikitin was refused legal representation of his choice and was not allowed visits by his family.

AAAS has now learned that on 27 March 1996 the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation declared the actions of the Russian Federal Security Services (FSB)to be unconstitutional. He was placed in isolation on 10 April 1996 when his two cell mates, which Nikitin believes to have been FSB agents, were removed.

Nikitin is now represented by a lawyer of his choice, Yuri Schmidt, a human rights lawyer from St. Petersburg and has been allowed visits by his wife. However, his lawyer's request for bail was refused by a Russian military court on 4 April.

The report, The Russian North Fleet - Sources of Radioactive Contamination, that led to Nikitin's arrest, was released on 18 April. The Bellona office in Murmansk was again searched by FSB agents on 22 April and other environmentalists working for Bellona reportedly continue to be harassed and threatened with imprisonment.

The imprisonment of Alexander Nikitin is in violation of Article 42 of the Russian Constitution, which prohibits secrecy in matters that may constitute hazards towards the environment or the health of human beings. In addition, it is contrary to human rights provisions enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights , to which the Russian Federation is a state party. They include:

United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights:

• Everyone has the right to liberty and security of the person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention (Article 9); and
• Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers (Article 19).

United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Right:

• No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile (Article 9);
• Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his own country (Article 13,2); and
• Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression (Article 19).

(Sources of information on this case are the Moscow Human Rights Research Center, and The Bellona Foundation, Web site: http:www.grida.no/ngo/bellona/nikitin.htm)

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send telexes, telegrams, faxes, or airmail letters:

• requesting the immediate and unconditional release of Alexander Nikitin on the grounds that he was arrested solely for the legitimate scientific work that he was conducting for Bellona;
• calling on the Russian authorities to provide a full and detailed explanation of the charges against Nikitin; and
• indicating that actions against environmental research can only make the environmental clean-up of Russia more difficult.

APPEAL AND INQUIRY MESSAGES SHOULD BE SENT TO:

Mikhail Barsukov
Director General of the Russian Federal Security S
Rossiyskaya Federatsiya
g. Moskva
Federalnaya Sluzhba bezopasnosti
Rossiyskoy Federatsii
Generalnomu direktoru Barsukovu M.
RUSSIA
Salutation: Dear Director General

Col.-Gen. Anatoly Kulikov
Russian Federation Minister of Internal Affairs
Rossiyskaya Federatsiya
117049 g. Moskva
ul. Zhitnaya, 16
Minsterstvo vnutrennikh del
Rossiyskoy Federatsii
Ministru Gen.-polk. Kulikovu A.
RUSSIA
fax: 011 (7095) 230-25-80
Salutation: Dear Minister

Yuriy Skuratov
Procurator General of the Russian Federation
Rossiyskaya Federatsiya
103793 g. Moskva K-31
ul. Dimitrovka, 15a
Prokuratura Rossiyskoy Federatsii
Generalnogo prokurora Skuratovu Yu.
RUSSIA
fax: 011-7095) 925-1879; 011 (7095) 292-88-48
Salutation: Dear Procurator General

COPIES SENT TO:

President of the Russian Federation
Boris Yeltsin
Rossiyskaya Federatsiya
g. Moskva
Kreml
Presidentu Rossiyskoy Federatsii Yeltsinu B.N.
RUSSIA
Fax: 011 (7095) 206-5173


Evgeny Primakov
Russian Federation Minister of Foreign Affairs
Rossiyskaya Federatsiya
121200 g. Moskva
Smolenskaya-Sennaya pl., 32/34
Ministerstov inostrannykh del
Rossiyskoy Federatsii
Ministru Primakovu Ye.
RUSSIA
Fax: 011 (7095) 230-21-30


Ambassador Yuli M. Vorontsov
Embassy of the Russian Federation
2650 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20007


Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering
Embassy of the United States of America
APO/AE 09721
Fax: 011 (7095) 4261/4270

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