AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

View Alerts By > Case | Date | Country | Victim

AAAS Human Rights Action Network

FACTS OF THE CASE:

Dr. Igor Sutyagin, 35, chief of the section on military technology research at the Institute of USA and Canada Studies, was detained in October 1999 by the Federal Security Service (FSB), successor to the Soviet-era KGB, and charged with espionage and treason. His trial is scheduled to take place this month.

At 8 a.m. on 27 October 1999, the FSB conducted searches of Sutyagin's home and office. Other staff members of the Institute, including an American Ph.D. student from Princeton University, were also subject to a detailed search by the FSB. Sutyagin was brought to the FSB office in Obninsk, where FSB officials questioned him. Sutyagin was not charged formally, but was "strongly discouraged from leaving" the FSB station. This appeared to be an attempt by the FSB to keep Sutyagin from contacting a lawyer. Under Russian law a person has no right to a lawyer until he or she is formally charged. On the evening of 29 October, Igor Sutyagin was officially arrested. Seven days later, he was formally charged with treason, which carries a penalty of twelve to twenty years in prison.

The Institute of USA and Canada Studies is a respected Moscow think tank. Sutyagin, a senior staff researcher at the Institute, was hired by a team from York and Carleton Universities in Canada to examine military-civilian relations in Russia and 11 other post-Communist countries. Researchers encountered no similar charges in any of the other countries studied.

Canada's Department of Defense funds the project under a Democratic Civil-Military Relations Program that was launched in 1997 to help Eastern European and former Soviet Union countries to develop Western-style civilian oversight of the military. Russian military officials had been involved in the program since its inception. They even attended an event in Canada, at which a book that featured findings from Sutyagin's research was discussed.

The FSB charges against Sutyagin are vague at best, contending that the study was not academic, but rather constituted espionage. The FSB seems to be saying that Canada was using these researchers to spy on Russia, a claim that has confounded Canadian officials. Michael Stevenson, Vice President of Academic Affairs at York University expressed in a letter to the head of the Institute that Russia was the only country "where some officials seem to have found a Canadian study of civil-military relations to be a threat to national security."

As part of his research and analysis, Sutyagin conducted interviews of military and civilian officials. He did not, however, have any access to classified information. No classified military information was found in the extensive search of his office and home. His interviews focused only on the role of civilians in the management of the military and the political attitudes of military leaders. The questions were drafted in advance of the interviews and were used in all 12 countries studied. Professor Sergei Plekhanov, a York University political scientist who helped draft the questions, stated, "Our project does not stand out as anything new or extraordinary. The project was completely open. It never occurred to us that this could be construed as an attempt to peer into Russian military secrets. It was designed to be helpful to the military leadership of Russia and other countries, to help them reorganize their armed forces."

Igor Sutyagin is still being held in jail. On 26 July, the Deputy Prosecutor General granted the FSB the right to extend Sutyagin's detention another two months. This is the second extension granted. He is currently held in a cell that was designed to hold eight people, but now holds 28. In early July, he was held in a punishment cell without heat or electricity. Sutyagin has a heart condition, and his health has been deteriorating. He is able to see his wife Irina only twice a month.

Relevant Human Rights Treaties:

Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

• Article 19: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: (The Russian Federation is a state party.)

• Article 19: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
• Article 9(2): Anyone who is arrested shall be informed, at the time of arrest, of the reasons for his arrest and shall be promptly informed of any charges against him.

(Sources of Information for this case include: http://www.case52.org, The Daily Princetonian, Radio Free Europe Newsline, Lycos Environmental News Service, Washington Post and The Globe and Mail)

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send telegrams, faxes, airmail letters or emails:

• calling on Russian authorities to drop the charges against Dr. Igor Sutyagin immediately and unconditionally on the grounds that they stem solely from the legitimate scientific work that he was conducting for the Institute of USA and Canada Studies.

APPEAL AND INQUIRY MESSAGES SHOULD BE SENT TO:

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin
President of Russia
The Kremlin
Moscow
Russia
Fax: (011) 7 095 206 5173 or 7 095 206 6277
president@gov.ru
Salutation: Your Excellency:

Premier Michail M. Kasyanov
Prime Minister
Staraya Pl., 4
103132 Moscow
Russia

COPIES SENT TO:

Yuri V. Ushakov
Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United States
Embassy of the Russian Federation to the United States
2650 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20007
Fax: (202) 298-5737
Salutation: Dear Mr. Ambassador

Main | CSFR Letters | Science and Human Rights Program