FSB To Use Secret Retroactive Military Decrees Against Aleksandr Nikitin For The Eighth Time

1999-06-17

The Russian Secret Police (FSB) investigator Aleksandr Kolb submited to Aleksandr Nikitin and his lawyers the results of an expert evaluation of state secrets in the Bellona Report on 17 June. The evaluation is solely based upon secret retroactive military decrees, which violates both articles 15 and 54 of the Russian Constitution.

This was the fourth evaluation of an alleged revelation of state secrets in the Bellona Northern Fleet Report since the FSB launched the criminal case in October 1995. The damage assessment, which is to follow, is the second attempt by the FSB to prove that Nikitin's actions seriously damaged the security of the Russian Federation. On October 29, 1998, the St. Petersburg City Court rejected the expert evaluations of the report because they were inconsistent and one-sided, and ruled that new expert evaluations had to be carried out. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation confirmed this ruling in February of this year.

Nikitin's defence counsel says the new state secret evaluation is identical to the three previous ones both in content and reference to the secret retroactive military decrees. The General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation found in a resolution dated January 27, 1997, the usage of the decrees in contradiction to the Russian Constitution.

Nevertheless the new charges, which might be levelled in July, will be basically identical to the one criticised by the General Prosecutor Office and rejected by the two courts.

Nikitin is accused of high treason and divulging state secrets for co-authoring a Bellona report on radiation hazards in the Russian Northern Fleet. In February 1999, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation returned the case to the FSB for additional investigation. The deadline for the investigation expires on 11 July, given the FSB does not apply for an extension.

More info: www.bellona.no/e/russia/nikitin/
[email protected]

Last updated:    June 1999

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