Вил Мирзаянов - State Secrets - An Insider's Chronicle of the Russian Chemical Weapons Program

The judge was a thickset middle-aged man, who had well groomed black wavy hair. He pretended to be an intellectual, but that didn’t match up with his poorly concealed expression of conceit and signs of treachery and slyness. The judge announced the beginning of the hearing of my case and added that he, Nikolai Sazonov, would conduct the session. He announced the names of the two jurors. I remembered that people called them “the nodders”, because they always nodded their heads as a sign of certain agreement. The judge’s tone of speech wasn’t flat. I would say that it had the intonations of a participant in a scientific debate. That was how he started his interrogation about my parentage, year of birth, educational background, etc., which was obviously a trivial introduction to the court session. I answered these questions, trying not to give the impression of an ingratiating defendant, and at the same time trying to respond appropriately. The judge asked who would defend me at the trial. I answered and asked for a two week postponement of the trial, in order to give my lawyer the time to recover his health. Then the prosecutor took the floor and said that he represented the Moscow City Prosecutor’s Office, however, another prosecutor, Leonid Pankratov, had prepared for the trial, but had caught a cold. The latter become familiar with my case at the request of the City Prosecutor, and he advised that it could take a considerable time to replace him. So he also asked the court to postpone the hearing until the State Prosecutor recovered.

Then the judge asked me what my preference would be for the composition of the court panel, and I answered that I would like to have the three independent judges to conduct the hearing. My choice was unexpected, but it seemed to me that three judges could have different opinions, which could give me some advantage in the long run. After this, the court adjourned for a short recess. Then the judge appeared, accompanied by “the nodders” and read their decision to comply with the request to have three independent judges and to postpone the next court session until January 24, 1994. That concluded the day’s business.

I remember that after the conclusion of that session, numerous correspondents entered the courtroom (the judge had dismissed security), and they interviewed Judge Sazonov. He answered their questions with apparent pleasure. In answering a question by Soni Efron from the Los Angeles Times , I said that I wasn’t going to remain mute during the trial process, and that I wasn’t happy at all about the hearing being conducted behind closed doors, because it created a bad precedent for potential dissidents who disagreed with the current regime. However, I didn’t know what I personally could do about it. [274] Sonni Efron, “Chemist Fears Trial will Not Be Fair”, Los Angeles Times , January 6, 1994.

The radio stations Mayak , Echo Moskva , Molodezhny Kanal , [The Youth Channel] and the TV channels NTV and All-Russia Channel Two reported on the beginning of the trial. Some newspapers published articles during the weeks that followed the beginning of the trial [275] Sergei Mostovshchikov, “There will be Three Judges Instead of One at Vil Mirzayanov’s Trial”, Izvestia , January 13, 1994. , [276] Semen Kontsov, “The Counterintelligence Agent Faces a Secret Trial”, Inostranets , January 12, 1994. , [277] Vladimir Voronov, “The Chemists from Lubyanka against the Chemist Mirzayanov”, Sobesednik , January 27, 1994. , [278] See ref. 249. , [279] See ref. 250. , [280] Richard Seltzer, “U.S. Scientists Protest Against the Trial of the Russian Chemist”, Chemical and Engineering News , January 24, 1994. , [281] Sonni Efron, “Whistle-Blower in Russia Calls Closed Trial “a Crime”‘, Los Angeles Times , January 26, 1994. , [282] “IM WORLAUT, Rußlands neue Chemiewaffen. Solitaritätsaufruf für kiritische Wissneschaftler”, Frankfurter Rundschau , 3 January, 1994. , [283] Von Dietmar Ostermann, “Russische Rüstungszentren entwickelten hochgiftige Chemiewaffen, Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung , 6 January, 1994. , [284] “Chemiewaffenprozeß in Moskau. Wil Mirzayanov wird Geheimnisverrat vorgeworfen”, Frankfurter Rundschau , January 5, 1994. , [285] Dina Verchenko, “Vil Mirzayanov’s Arrest”, Express-Chronika , January 28, 1994. , [286] Aleksander Protsenko, “What are they Trying Vil Mirzayanov for?”, Megapolis Express , January 12, 1994. , [287] L. Nikitinsky, “The Secret of a State Secret”, Izvestia , January 22, 1994. and expressed concern about having a closed trial. The majority of them classified the goal of upcoming trial as an attempt by the Chekists to retaliate against me for telling the truth.

Of course, those in power in the U.S. couldn’t ignore such statements. Additionally, Gale Colby and Irene Goldman continued to actively inform the American public, the scientific societies, and senators and congressmen about my case. On the evening of the day that the trial process started, Gale called me and asked whether she should come to Moscow and try to do something for my defense. I replied that she would be more effective and helpful by staying in the U.S., and I asked her not to come. She agreed with my arguments, and Gale’s and Irene’s work helped accelerate the activities of scientific and other organizations working to support me. Almost every day before the trial, which was scheduled for January 24 th, I received new statements in my defense by fax.

Prior to January 6, 1994, some people doubted that a closed trial process was possible at all. However, the press clearly saw after the first session, that the old system was very much alive, and it fully intended to ignore the protests against the closed hearing. This put a lot of people strongly on their guard, both in Russia and abroad, because they felt that the events were unfolding in the same sad and familiar ways as they had in Soviet times. Letters addressed to the Russian powers-that-be show this. [288] Letter of the American Association for the Advancement of Science to the Attorney General of Russia, Aleksei Kazannik. January 13, 1994. See Annex 67. -296

A letter was sent on January 13, 1994, from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) To the Attorney General of Russia, Aleksei Kazannik 288which insisted that foreign observers be allowed to witness the trial and stressed that “the Mirzayanov prosecution and secret trial is an unfortunate and very surprising throwback to past practices under the totalitarian regime.” The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) in its letter emphasized that my case had become a famous one now in the American scientific community, and had been discussed at the highest levels of our two Governments. The FAS asked Attorney General Aleksei Kazannik to ensure that I received a fair trial and expressed hope that the case could be resolved in a respectful way. [289] Letter of the Federation of American Scientists to the Attorney General of Russia, Aleksei Kazannik, January 14, 1994. See Annex 68.

The National Academy of Sciences of the U.S. sent a letter to President Boris Yeltsin on January 19, 1994 asking the Russian Government to drop the charges against me “because they are in clear violation of the Russian Constitution.” [290] Letter of the U.S. National Academy of Science to President Yeltsin, January 24, 1994. See Annex 69. “If the charge is not dropped”, they wrote “we would expect the Russian government to grant Dr. Mirzayanov a fair trial, and we would appeal that it be open in accordance with the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Dr. Mirzayanov acted on the dictates of his conscience and, if accorded due process, he would be exonerated on the grounds that he exercised his right to the free speech and did not reveal information that was, at the time, officially recognized as a state secret.”