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The Danilov case

As we have already previously mentioned, the Krasnoyarsk scholar and physician Valentin Danilov was accused of having committed treason and fraud. He was arrested directly in the courtroom, since he was said to have acted against an official written instruction of the Public Prosecutor to only leave his place of residence by authority. However, he had left Krasnoyarsk several times.

On Thursday, due to the unexpected development of this case, a briefing was held in the Museum Center at the Strelka. The meeting was attended by the acting secretary of the Committee for the Defense of Scholars, Ernst Cherniy, who had specially travelled by air from Moscow to Krasnoyarsk, Yelena Yevmenova –Danilov’s advocate, Alexey Babiy, chairman of the Krasnoyarsk „Memorial“ Organization, as well as Vladimir Vedeneev, the director of the Human Rights Information Center.

Ernst Cherniy casted particular doubts on the correctness regarding the choice of the jurors and expressed his amazement about their having come to an unanimous vote.

Advocate Yelena Yevmenova pointed out that the most important question had not been presented to the jurors for examination - the question about whether the information Danilov had passed to the Chinese were subject to strict secrecy at all. According to the opinion of the advocate this situation represents the real and ultimate nature of the case.

Alexey Babiy, who judged and estimated the legal proceedings undertaken against Valentin Danilov, stressed out that this case in its present development represents one of the typical court cases of the thirtees of the past century, although its outer attributes give the impression that everything is legal.

By the way, these words uttered by the Krasnoyarsk human rights’ activist remind us of the yesterday’s declaration made by members of the „Common Action“ initiative group, which is made up of well-known human rights’ activists, such as Yelena Bonner, Lidia Grafova, Lev Ponomarev, Gleb Yakunin and others.

The authors of this declaration condemn Valentin Danilov’s arrest and imprisonment and appeal to the „International Amnesty“ Human Rights’ Organization with the earnest request of considering him as a political prisoner.

„The Russian human rights’ activists have not only once explained that the victims who inspired the FSB to „espionage court cases“, are, in fact, persecuted for political motives“ – this is what the declaration says. This was also affirmed by the decision of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Court on the arrest of the physician Valentin Danilov, which does not represent a precedent. The first case of this kind that happened after the ending of the Soviet times, was the arrest of a citizen of our country, who had given an interview to an American newspaper

...

Factually, the judge accused Danilov of having committed a new crime – not only without any examination of the case before the law-court, but even without carrying out any preliminary proceedings at all. Thus, they now have a political reason to prosecute Valentin Danilov, and this is an infringement of the existing law committed directly in court“.

 Krasnoyarskiy rabochiy. 13.11.04


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