AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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AAAS Human Rights Action Network

Letter of Appeal from the AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility

Vienna and Moscow, 23 January 2002

Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
121069 Moscow, Povarskaya 15
Chair: Vyacheslav Lebedev

Dear Chair and Members of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation,

We are writing to you on behalf of the Moscow Helsinki Group and the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF), an organization comprising 41 Helsinki Committees and cooperating organizations in North America, Europe, and Central Asia.

We wish to draw your attention to the recent decision made by the Kaluga Court in the case of Igor Sutyagin, a scientist from Obninsk, kept in detention in isolation wards since he was accused of high treason for allegedly passing state secrets regarding Russian military capability.

On 27 December, the Kaluga Court was to judge on the validity of the charges against Mr. Sutyagin and to deliver its decision as to his guilt. The Court concluded that the case showed violations of legal procedure, which had deprived the defendant of his constitutional right to defend himself. The Court further said that the charges brought by the FSB were not specific
enough, and that it was not possible, on the basis of these charges, to find what were the secrets that were allegedly passed. In addition, the Court said that the experts' opinions used in the prosecution were based on an invalid Decree of the Ministry of Defence.

Still, the Kaluga Court did not reach a not guilty verdict. It decided to send back the case of Mr. Sutyagin "to further investigation". Furthermore, it was decided that in the meantime, Mr. Sutyagin should remain in detention.

Igor Sutyagin has already spent more that two years in detention. The IHF has on various occasions appealed to Russian authorities on this issue, stating that there are no valid grounds for his detention.

It is troublesome that in spite of its observations on the irregularities of the case and the absence of evidence, the Kaluga Court still chose to resort to the practice of "sending back the case to further investigation", like in other infamous "spy cases". The IHF is especially concerned that the Kaluga Court decided that Mr. Sutyagin should remain in detention pending FSB further investigation. The fact that the investigators have all that time been unable to build up a case is not a valid reason to submit a person to the inhuman treatment he suffers in the detention facility, and will continue to suffer over the period that the re-investigation will last. The unjustified prolonged detention of Mr. Sutyagin, as well his treatment in detention, reveal gross violations of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In view of the above, we are asking you kindly to review the decision of the Kaluga Court and order the release Igor Sutyagin from pre-trial detention, as requested by Mr. Sutyagin's lawyers in their appeal to your Court.

The IHF hopes that the Supreme Court will act upon our request and thus show that the rule of law prevails in the Russian Federation.

On behalf of the IHF,

Ludmilla M. Alexeyeva
President of the IHF
Chair of the MHG

Aaron Rhodes
Executive Director, IHF

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