РОССИЯ

May 28, 1998

Mr. Yu. Skuratov
Procurator General
Bolshaya Dmitrovka 15A
Moscow

By FAX

Dear Mr. Skuratov,

On behalf of Human Rights Watch/Helsinki, the largest non-governmental human rights organization based in the United States, I extend my greetings.

I am writing to you regarding the case of ecologist Aleksandr Nikitin in relation to the 7th indictment that the Federal Security Service presented to him on May 8, 1998.

On April 27, 1998, your deputy Mr. Rozanov instructed the Federal Security Service (FSB) to remove all references to secret decrees and retroactive applied legislation. As I am sure you are aware, the FSB's previous indictments referred to a variety of secret decrees of the Ministry of Defense, such as Decree No. 71 of 1993 and Decree No. 55 of 1996. The indictments also referred to a presidential decree of December 1995 on state secrets. Although this latest decree has been published, it had not been issued yet at the time Mr. Nikitin allegedly leaked state secrets and could thus not be applied to Mr. Nikitin in accordance with article 54 of Russia's 1993 constitution (prohibition of retroactive force for laws that establish or toughen restriction rights and freedoms).

On May 8, 1998, the FSB presented Mr. Nikitin with a new indictment. The FSB has indeed removed all references to the Ministry of Defence decrees and the presidential decree of December 1995. The indictment now refers to article 5 of the 1993 Law on State Secrets as a legal basis for the accusation of divulging state secrets. However, at the time Mr. Nikitin committed the allegedly criminal activities in September 1995, article 5 of this law stated that information in a number of areas "can be classified as state secret." The law itself did not classify any areas as state secret.

Only since the fall of 1997, when the State Duma approved a number of amendments to the Law on State Secrets does article 5 classify information in the areas mentioned in the article as secret. Article 54 constitution prohibits the retroactive application of this law to Mr. Nikitin. The current indictment therefore does not contain a legal basis for classifying any of the information Mr. Nikitin passed on to the Bellona Foundation as secret.

Human Rights Watch has long believed that Mr. Nikitin did not commit a crime at all working for the Bellona Foundation and that the FSB instituted criminal proceedings for purely political reasons. This was confirmed by the persistant refusal of the FSB not to refer to secret legislation, the inobjective expert assessments that were carried out by the Ministry of Defense and the numerous procedural violations that occurred in the case. The latest indictment shows once again that the FSB is either incapable of carrying out a criminal investigation in accordance with the law or is unwilling to admit that Mr. Nikitin is not guilty of divulging state secrets.

We respectfully ask you to instruct the FSB to immediately present a new indictment based on valid legal documents or to close the case and drop all the charges.

We look forward to your reply,

Respectfully yours,

Holly Cartner
Executive Director
Human Rights Watch
Europe and Central Asia division