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

“With respect to Vil Mirzayanov, it’s a case in which we have taken a great deal of interest and in which we continue to be interested and which I have discussed a number of times with senior officials of the Russian Federation government… We will continue to follow this case with a great deal of interest…” [305] Excerpt with remarks by US Ambassador Thomas Pickering, from the transcript of the press conference held on January 28, 1994 in the Russian-American Press Center. Formally cited: Extract from the Congressional Record – Senate. (February 1, 1994. S.S.543-544). Library of Congress . http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin

The New York Times gave a brief history of my case on January 28, 1994 and the arrest that followed. [306] “Russian in Chemical Arms Exposé Arrested”, New York Times International , January 28, 1994.

On January 29, 1994 Izvestia published two articles [307] “Editorial: The Mirzayanov Case: Folly of the Authorities or the Establishment of Despotic Power”, Izvestia , January 29, 1994. , [308] Sergei Mostovshchikov, “The Authorities put Scientist Vil Mirzayanov into One Cell with Criminals”, Izvestia , January 29, 1994. about my case: an editorial and an article about the conditions I was treated to in prison. The editorial piece was an attempt to evaluate my case from the point of view of the general socio-political developments in Russia. It stressed that everyone had long understood that the case was absolutely groundless. The judges must have understood the whole absurdity of their actions and of “the Mirzayanov case” as such.

Then the newspaper analyzed possible reasons for why the case was continuing, and it came to the conclusion that a despotic regime and despotism in general were becoming established on the absurdity of the Mirzayanov case. Despite the alarms that the press was sounding, the authorities didn’t hear the warnings and continued with my “case,” throwing out a challenge to the whole society. So the press would have to find out who was behind all this. However, the newspaper doubted that any such person could be found. Izvestia further wrote, 307that

“…the motherland put the scientist on an equal basis with a murderer. Thus, before the next session of the Moscow City Court, scheduled for February 3, Vil Mirzayanov could be fully morally crushed and humiliated by his time in jail. Aleksander Asnis just wants to have a positive effect on the mental state of his client, and so he regularly meets with him in the investigation isolator cell. However, according to the defense attorney, it is not easy to get a meeting with a prisoner because Matrosskaya Tishina is probably the only single place left in Moscow where there is still a line – a line many hours long for lawyers who want to meet with their clients…”

Another article by Sergei Mostovshchikov 308on February 1 stprecisely reflects the impressions of my lawyer came away with from our meeting:

“Aleksander Asnis met his client and told him that on February 3, at the next session of the Moscow City Court he would raise the question about changing the unnecessary interruption. But, the court could agree to that only if Vil Mirzayanov promises to attend the proceedings. However, the chemist responded that he couldn’t voluntarily participate in a closed trial process that is violating the Constitution of his country. In the first place, the scientist doesn’t consider himself to be guilty, and secondly, he is certain that he cannot be convicted based on secret documents, because that is prohibited by Russia’s Primary Law. This is why he prefers to stay in jail and appear in the courtroom only if taken there by force.” [309] Sergei Mostovshchikov, “Vil Mirzayanov is Sitting in a Cell with Seven Criminals and Four Mattresses”, Izvestia , February 1, 1994.

My meeting with Asnis probably didn’t put him in a cheerful mood. He had to brief foreign journalists about my sad predicament. An article by Carey Scott, in the February 1, 1994 issue of The Moscow Times , discusses this. [310] Carey Scott, “Activists Protest Jailing of Chemist”, The Moscow Times , February 1, 1994. The journalist reported that, according to the human rights activist Andrei Mironov, I was being kept under cruel conditions deliberately, especially to humiliate me. Scott also quoted a statement made by “Russia’s Choice” at a press conference which took place on Monday, January 31, regarding my case. The statement read that the party “hoped the Moscow court will finish hearing the Mirzayanov case in the shortest time possible in strict accordance with the Constitution and the law.”

Then Scott remarked that Nikolai Vorontsov, [311] He was the former First Minister of Ecology of the USSR, a renowned scientist-biologist and academician. a spokesman for “Russia’s Choice” who read the statement, said that I was charged based on a law that “didn’t exist before and does not exist now.” The article also noted that the human rights organization Helsinki Watch had published a statement, which said my case qualified as “fundamentally unjust” and stated that the case itself was violating “not only the Constitution of Russia, but also basic human rights.” Many western papers informed the public about my arrest. [312] “Russian Chemist Jailed after Refusing to Attend Trial”, Chemical and Engineering News , January 31, 1994. , [313] Judith Perera, “Russian Whistleblower Lands in Jail”, New Scientist , February 1, 1994. -315

One opinion which probably reflected the sentiments of a large part of the American public was expressed more eloquently in an editorial of The Wall Street Journal Europe and an article by J. Michael Waller there. [314] “Review & Outlook: Russia on Trial”, (Editorial) Wall Street Journal Europe , February 2, 1994. , [315] J. Michael Waller, “Soviet Redux: Secret Weapons and Poisoned Justice”, Wall Street Journal Europe , February 2, 1994. He writes:

“A good way for Mr. Yeltsin to address the problem would be to order Mr. Mirzayanov freed and the circumstances of his arrest and prosecution investigated by responsible authorities. The world is very much in need of that kind of concrete reassurances that Russia is not slipping back into its nasty old days.”

My arrest literally caused a firestorm of protest from numerous scientific and human rights organizations. The German scientific society “International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility” (INES) made a sharp protest against my arrest on January 28, 1994, in which it accused the Russian authorities of reverting to the old practices of the totalitarian regime, and it called for a quick end to the practice of persecuting scientists who listened to the voices of their consciences and acted for the sake of all people of the Earth.

The late Dr. Joshua Lederberg, President of the New York Academy of Sciences, sent a fax addressed to Yuri Baturin, the Presidential Assistant for National Security, on January 31, 1994. He called on the Russian government to drop the charges against me, because they were in clear violation of the Russian Constitution.

Additionally, the following organizations expressed their strong protest against the actions of the Russian authorities towards me in numerous letters addressed to President Boris Yeltsin, Attorney General Alexei Kazannik, and Yuri Baturin, the Presidential Advisor for National Security and others: the U.S. Committee of Concerned Scientists, the American Association for Advancement of Science, the Union of Councils of Soviet Jewry, the international human rights organization Helsinki Watch, the National Academy of Sciences, the Federation of American Scientists, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society and others.