Washington, DC - After a four year ordeal, Russian environmental whistleblower Aleksandr Nikitin was acquitted today by a Saint Petersburg court. Reacting to the verdict, Nikitin told UCSJ that, "The decision was done in the best traditions of international justice."

Nikitin, a former nuclear engineer in the Soviet navy, now works for the Norwegian environmental group "The Bellona Foundation." In 1996, Nikitin helped Bellona produce a report on the grave threat to public safety posed by the aging nuclear submarines of the Russian Northern Fleet. For his efforts to expose environmental threats to the Russian public, Nikitin was accused of espionage, imprisoned for several months, and repeatedly put on trial. Prosecutors based their charges on secret and retroactive decrees, which is illegal under Russian law, and were never able to prove that Nikitin used anything but open, public sources of information in his research. This latest trial involved the eighth set of charges made against Nikitin since 1996.

"Aleksandr Niktin's acquittal sets a tremendously important precedent," declared Yosef I. Abramowitz, UCSJ's President. "Starting shortly after Nikitin was arrested, we have consistently stated that the way this case is resolved will help determine whether Russia finally moves forward towards a state based on rule of law or backwards towards a state governed by secrecy, paranoia and fear, where Jews and other minorities would be especially vulnerable. Judge Golets' courageous decision to acquit Nikitin of these false charges is a major step forward for Russian democracy." In the Soviet period, Jews were often the victims of arbitrary actions by the KGB and secrecy paranoia, whether as Refuseniks, religious or cultural figures, or human rights defenders. The Soviet style practices that the security services employed against Nikitin threatened a return to that dangerous time for Jews.

Following the Jewish tradition of Pidyon Shvuyim ("Redemption of the Captive"), from the beginning of the Nikitin case, UCSJ, in close cooperation with Bellona, the Sierra Club, and Amnesty International, advocated on his behalf, meeting with Russian and US officials, using its grassroots Internet network of activists to send emails and faxes to Russian officials, and informing the media about the importance of his case. UCSJ activists and member councils made critical contributions to this efforts, including Advocacy Committee Chair Genya Intrator in Toronto, who kept in constant contact with the Nikitin family, the San Francisco based Bay Area Council for Jewish Rescue and Renewal, which led a rally on Nikitin's behalf in San Francisco and coordinated the activities of the Saint Petersburg based Harold Light Center, whose director Leonid Lvov was a key player in Nikitin's Russian support network, and William M. Cohen, director of the Center for Human Rights Advocacy in Boulder, Colorado, whose legal advocacy included an amicus brief on Nikitin's behalf.

The three year campaign of persecution waged by Russia's security services against Nikitin was part of a larger pattern. The arrest of Captain Grigory Pasko and the harassment of scientist Vladimir Soyfer are examples of this pattern of abuse displayed by the Russian government against those who study and expose environmental hazards. UCSJ and its partners in the environmental and human rights movement will continue to monitor this critical issue.

More on the trials of Aleksandr Nikitin

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