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Russian Scientist Spy Trial Resumes
October 30, 2001
MOSCOW (AP) - The closed-door trial of a Russian scientist charged with spying for China resumed on Tuesday in Siberia, another in the recent wave of espionage cases against researchers and scientists with foreign contacts.
The trial of Valentin Danilov from the Krasnoyarsk Technical University was adjourned for a week after an assistant judge demanded that the physicist be freed from custody over faulty expert analysis in the case.
Prosecutors, in turn, demanded that the assistant judge be replaced due to his alleged impartiality, and the Krasnoyarsk regional court met the demand, Danilov attorney Yelena Yevmenova told the ITAR-Tass news agency.
Danilov was arrested Feb. 16 and charged with selling secrets to a Chinese company. The charges involve a contract the university signed with the company for constructing a test platform to study electricity effects on satellites.
The scientist contends he did not violate any laws because the information he provided was already published in scientific journals. He also dismisses the charges of misappropriating money in connection to the contract.
On Monday, the trial of arms control researcher Igor Sutyagin, accused of spying for the United States, also resumed in the town of Kaluga near Moscow.
Sutyagin has been in jail since his arrest in October 1999. The Federal Security Service, the main successor to the KGB, said Sutyagin had compiled sensitive data for a London-based consulting company allegedly linked with U.S. secret services.
Sutyagin has denied the accusations. His lawyers say he couldn't have been a spy since he had no access to secret information in his work as a researcher for the United States and Canada Institute, a Moscow think-tank.
Human rights advocates say the cases against scientists are intended to discourage Russian researchers from maintaining contacts with foreigners.
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