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Gazeta.Ru
April 27, 2004
Scientist Sutyagin political prisoner ­ Amnesty

Amnesty International recognized Igor Sutyagin, sentenced to 15 years for espionage in Russia, as a political prisoner Monday. Sergei Nikitin, the organization’s Russian director, told MosNews he believes Sutyagin was prosecuted unfairly.

“We believe that the trial showed numerous violations in legal proceedings,” he said. “We urge a retrial and call for Sutyagin to be released until the next hearing.”

Sutyagin, who worked for the USA and Canada Institute, was arrested by FSB agents in Kaluga in October 1999. He was charged with selling information on nuclear submarines and missile warning systems to a British company that the prosecutor said was a cover for the CIA.

The Moscow City Court found Sutyagin guilty of state treason April 7 and sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

Nikitin said that the organization plans to address PACE together with Human Rights Watch, the Moscow Helsinki Group, and the Russian Committee for Scientists’ Rights on the behalf of Sutyagin, asking PACE to “establish justice”.

The organizations, according to Nikitin, jointly believe that Sutyagin’s trial was one of the first signs heralding the start of political repression in Russia. The address will be publicized on Tuesday evening.

The statement has already been signed by the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Vitaly Ginzburg, journalist Grigory Pasko (who has also been tried for treason), and other prominent Russian public figures and activists.

The scientist’s lawyer, Boris Kuznetsov, told MosNews that the decision to address PACE was a move to get the attention of western investors. “What investors are concerned about is crime. This is fine if the court system is working properly,” Kuznetsov told MosNews, “but this will be a signal [to investors] that the court system here is not working properly.”

However, Kuznetsov said he doubts that a petition from Amnesty International will help get his client out of prison anytime soon. The scientist will remain in a Moscow detention center pending appeals, and how soon he is released depends only on the success of those appeals, he said.

“First, the ruling must be appealed to the Supreme Court,” he said, “but we need to prove that the trial was conducted with procedural violations.” Kuznetsov was optimistic, however, saying that the defense already had enough evidence of procedural violations.

He admitted that Amnesty International’s recognition of Sutyagin as a political prisoner would add weight to his case before the Supreme Court. As MosNews reported earlier, the defense team appealed to the Supreme Court on April 14.

Lawyers representing Sutyagin have already got in touch with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg about hearing his case there. “As far as I know, Strasbourg is willing to hear the case,” Kuznetsov told MosNews. “If the PACE address is unsuccessful, we will take it to Strasbourg.”

He said he hopes Amnesty International’s statement will draw the attention of prominent Russian human rights activists, and that the publicity will bolster the case in the Russian Supreme Court.