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Russian scientist Danilov, jailed for espionage, appeals to European Court

Valentin Danilov, the Russian scientist sentenced to 14 years for espionage, has filed an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. His lawyer stated: “We have turned to the European Court to protect Danilov’s rights. The claim concerns the violation of four provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights.
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Alert-Russia

Russia
Date: 08 Jan 2006
Source: Moscow News
Classification: Media Article
Violation: Prison Sentence
Affected Persons: Valentin Danilov
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BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Dr. Danilov, was sentenced to 14 years in a maximum-security prison on November 2004. The scientist, former head the Thermo-Physics Center at Krasnoyarsk State Technical University, was arrested in February 2001 after being accused of selling top secret satellite information to a Chinese company. Dr. Danilov has consistently maintained that this information has been available in scientific journals and had been declassified for over 10 years. The fraud charges are linked to his payment in cash to contractors working on the research project. Although, making payments in cash does violate financial regulations, it is not an infraction that usually merits jail time in Russia.

International observers at the time (see related NEAR Alerts) expressed concern with the guilty verdict and the stiff sentencing. They claimed that Dr. Danilov's case is part of government campaign to intimidate scientists from seeking out foreign contacts and commercializing their research. There were also some procedural concerns. According to Dr. Danilov's defence attorney, the judge framed the central questions to consider to the jurors in such a way as to avoid the issue of whether the information used in the research was, in fact, secret.

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