AAAS Science and Human Rights Program

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Report on Science and Human Rights

Summer/Fall 2000 Vol XXI, No. 2

On September 13, the Presidium of the Russian Supreme Court dismissed an attempt by the Prosecutor General to appeal the 1999 acquittal of Aleksandr Nikitin, retired Russian Navy colonel and environmental whistleblower, finally ending the legal nightmare that he has endured for over four years. Nikitin and his supporters thought that the case had ended in December 1999 when the St. Petersburg City Court acquitted Nikitin of all charges of high treason and divulging state secrets for co-authoring a report for the Norwegian-based Bellona Foundation. The report documented the environmental dangers posed by the abandoned nuclear submarines of the Russian Northern Fleet in the Kola Peninsula. The Russian Supreme Court upheld the acquittal in April, the restrictions against Nikitin were dropped, and his passport was returned.

However, in July 2000, Nikitin was traveling in the United States when he learned that the Prosecutor General’s office had filed an appeal in the case. Nikitin was in San Francisco to finally receive the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, which was awarded to him in 1997.

With the dismissal of the Prosecutor General’s attempt to re-open the case, Nikitin’s victory is final; the Supreme Court’s decision cannot be appealed. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg will evaluate the Nikitin case at the end of this year. The court will examine whether legal grounds existed to prosecute Nikitin. The court will also ask the Russian authorities why they allowed the case to drag on for five years without a determination. If the verdict is in Nikitin’s favor, he will be eligible for compensation.

Several scientific societies, including AAAS, human rights groups, and environmental organizations were actively involved in Nikitin’s case. The combined effect of letters, petitions, press conferences, and Internet postings from the different organizations let the Russian government know that the world was watching. Nikitin credits the work of these organizations with raising the profile of his case. He expressed great relief that his ordeal has ended and stated his intention to continue his environmental work.

Another recent human rights case that has reached a successful conclusion is that of Dr. Sergey Piontkovski, an internationally respected marine biologist from the Ukraine’s Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas in Sevastopol. Piontkovski’s ordeal began last October, when Ukrainian Intelligence Service officials raided his office, searched his computer files, and confiscated his passport. Piontkovski was accused of revealing state secrets and engaging in illegal currency transactions. In question was his research on bioluminescence in plankton and grants he received from INTAS, a European organization that supports international scientific collaboration.

The international scientific community, as well as human rights advocates, took up Piontkovski’s case. A special website was set up that provided information about his case and helped raise funds for a legal defense. Scientific societies took part in letter writing campaigns to the Ukrainian government and voiced their support for the free exchange of scientific information as well as the vital role of international collaboration in the scientific enterprise.

The authorities eventually dropped the charges against Piontkovski and returned his passport. Piontkovski believes that the rapid exchanges of information that occurred over the Internet and through e-mail listservs were instrumental in stopping the government from going forward with the charges.

Sergey Piontkovski and his family left Ukraine in March 2000 and are currently living on Long Island, where he has been given temporary office space at the Marine Sciences Research Center at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. However, his challenges are not over. Piontkovski has been unsuccessful so far in his attempts to find a permanent position in marine biology in the U.S. Piontkovski, his wife Ina, and son Andre are trying to put their experiences in the Ukraine behind them and adjust to a new life in the U.S. The Science and Human Rights Program honored Dr. Piontkovski at a special reception at AAAS last June, where he expressed gratitude to the international scientific community for working on his case.