The trial of an environmental activist opening next week will serve as a litmus test for the Russian government's commitment to civil society and the rule of law.
Nikitin is being tried on the basis of secret government decrees that have never been publicly revealed -- even after he was charged with violating them.
Led by the Federal Security Service (FSB), the criminal investigation has dragged on for three years. The FSB stubbornly resisted persistent calls from the international community to drop the charges and to correct some of the serious due process violations it committed throughout the case. Nikitin's fate is now in the hands of the St. Petersburg City Court (Naberezhnaya reki Fontanka 16, St. Petersburg), with Judge Sergei Golets and two lay assessors presiding. The trial will be partially open to the press.
If convicted, Nikitin faces a maximum twenty-year prison sentence. The court may also either acquit or return the case to the FSB for further investigation.
However, Russian judges are usually reluctant to acquit defendants and prefer to send criminal cases back to investigators, especially in sensitive cases. The Nikitin case could still drag on for some time.
Judge Golets's initial rulings prior to the trial have been encouraging. At Nikitin's request, he opened parts of the initially closed trial to the press and observers, and ordered the Ministry of Defense to provide copies of the secret decrees under which Nikitin has been charged. To date, neither Nikitin nor his attorney has had access to the decrees, which list items that are classified as state secrets.
"The Russian government has behaved unscrupulously in this case," said Holly Cartner, executive director of the Europe and Cental Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. "It has been willing to allow the FSB dictate its terms, and displayed contempt for free speech, for due process and for the environment."
Important research on nuclear safety has virtually ceased because environmental activists no longer feel safe conducting this kind of research.
The government intervened in the case once, in late 1996 when the case started jeopardizing government interests. The U.S. government, the European Union, and the Council of Europe constantly raised the case at international meetings. Russia opted for a compromise apparently aimed at appeasing both the international community and the FSB: It released Nikitin in December 1996 but gave the FSB a free hand to deal with the case.
For an overview of the circumstances of the Nikitin case, please see attached Fact Sheet which chronically lists the events in the case.
