STATEMENT OF THE MOSCOW HELSINKI GROUP

July 29, 2000 Moscow

The participants of the conference devoted to the 25 anniversary of signing of the Helsinki Accords notice that recently in the country the influence of Internal Security bodies and especially FSB (Feberal Security Bureau) on public life has dangerously increased and the practice of espionage has restored.

Numerous facts of recent years show that FSB ignores laws of the Russian Federation quite uninhibitedly and tries to work as it did during the Soviet period, constantly violating human rights. Hypertrophied secrecy is being restored. At the same time security agents pretend that there are no laws "On State secret", "On operative-search activity", "On mass-media", etc. Moreover, it seems that there is no Constitution for them.

Possibly they believe that FSB, which is as closed as structure as the old VChK, GPU, OGPU, NKVD, KGB used to be, does not have to prove their accusations even in court. It is sufficient for them to bring charges against a person. They believe that courts have to pass a verdict of guilty based on their charges. The verdict of "not guilty" make security agents angry. FSB and the Office of Public Prosecutor work closely with Internal Security bodies.

Offices of Public Prosecutor prosecute ecologists, human rights activities, scientists, businessmen, diplomats, while there is an enormous number of non-discovered notorious assassinations, acts of terrorism and total corruption. Closed door trials are held more and more often due to the so-called reasons of secrecy. Often courts act on the basis of not published internal acts rather then on the basis of laws and Constitution, thus breaking articles 15 of the Constitution.

We are convinced that all strained interpretation and forging would become obvious if our society knew what security officers consider as secret and espionage and all trials were open and public. Only dirty business is done in secret.

Internal services have always been engaged in falsifications and provocations. It is enough to remember the case of the "spy" Shyaransky. Was anybody punished for this falsified "case"? Unfortunately, not.

The fact that falsifications and intimidation of defendants and witnesses are becoming a norm in democratic Russia provoke fears. That is why such cases as cases of Nikitin, Pasco, Soifer, Babitsky, Sutyagin, Moiseyev emerged.

During the legal proceeding of the case of Moiseyev there were found unconcealed forgeries made by the FSB investigation. The Office of Public Prosecutor kept silent.
To re-organize FSB into a really effective security service is a must, and in order to do so a serious reform of this organization is required. Without considerable reform of the security services, without public control over the Internal Security bodies, the society risks to find itself back in the very remote past with all its terrifying features and consequences.

The participants of the Conference expect from the authorities of the Russian Federation that they:

• stop manipulations over the case of Nikitin;
• close the case of Babitsky because of lack of corpus delicti;
• hold public session of the court on cases of Moiseyev and Sutyagin, in which, as the community knows, there is no state secret;
• refer the case of Moiseyev from the military procurator's office to the civil one;
• release Sutyagin and Moiseyev from arrest;
• insure the assistance of observers of international organizations protecting human rights, such as the International Helsinki Federation on Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International;
• initiate case proceeding against those officials who falsified accusatory evidences in Moiseyev's case;
• oblige FSB on Primorsky Territory to change the form of refusal of initiation of criminal proceeding on Soifer's case from amnesty to rehabilitation;
• stop prosecution of ecologists, human rights activities, scientists;
• force internal security services and procurator's office of Russian Federation strictly follow the laws and the Constitution.

The Democratic society must find the strength to recognize and correct its mistakes. Otherwise, it shall have no Future.

СОДЕРЖАНИЕ | В начало страницы