Mikhail Trepashkin appeals to UN Secretary General

Mikhail  Trepashkin has sent an appeal asking that UN Secretary General  Ban  Ki-moon urge the Russian law enforcement authorities  to  release  him and review his case.

The appeal states that he has been denied the right to have his case reconsidered, which is guaranteed by Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 2 of Protocol 7 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

“On 19 April 2007, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed a resolution demanding that Russia immediately release me but the Russian authorities are in no hurry to comply. The international human rights organization Amnesty International has declared my conviction to have been politically motivated.  The same conclusion was reached by the US State Department in their Country Reports on Human Rights Practices”.

“I would ask that on behalf of the most influential organization in the world, attention be paid to human rights violations in Russia and that a demand be made for my release and a review of the case. …It is not only a question of my rights, but of the rights of my children left at home without means of subsistence and deprived of the chance to see me, since I have been imprisoned 2.2 thousand miles away from my home”.

 "Since my case is not the only one of this kind in Russia, I ask you to put the  issue  of  human  rights  violations,  politically-motivated persecution  and  political  murders  in  Russia  on the agenda of the next UN session in September this year”.

A brief reminder of this case (more information, including over the recent judgment by the European Court of Human Rights in Trepashkin’s favour, can be found by following the links.  Mikhail Trepashkin is in ill-health, he has children, and he is in prison on politically-motivated grounds.  The international community has no right to sit back and do nothing

Mikhail Trepashkin was sentenced in May 2005 to four years’ imprisonment in an open prison colony for illegal possession of ammunition and divulging state secrets.

Russian human rights defenders consider Mikhail Trepashkin to be a political prisoner. Amnesty International has also stated that Mr Trepashkin’s prosecution was politically motivated.

We would draw your attention to the PACE report issued in September 2006: Fair trial issues in criminal cases concerning espionage or divulging state secrets (Doc.11031)

“(36). Mr Trepashkin, a former FSB officer turned human rights lawyer, who defended the interests of several victims of the Moscow apartment building bombings, was first arrested - for illegal possession of a firearm - a week before he was scheduled to appear in court and present material potentially embarrassing for the FSB. Mr Trepashkin has consistently maintained that the weapon was planted by the FSB. He was later acquitted of this charge, and accused and finally convicted of having divulged official secrets whilst employed with the KGB/FSB.”