[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 140 (Friday, October 28, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2211]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           THE RENEWED JUDICIAL ASSAULT ON MIKHAIL TREPASHKIN

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 28, 2005

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, as Co-Chairman of the Helsinki 
Commission, I would like to reiterate my concerns regarding the rule of 
law, or the absence of it, in the Russian Federation today. The case of 
Mikhail Trepashkin, which I raised in the House last November, 
highlights the shortcomings and corruption that plague the Russian 
legal system.
  Trepashkin, an attorney and former Federal Security Service (FSB) 
officer, was arrested on October 24, 2003, just one week before he was 
scheduled to represent the American relatives of a victim of the 1999 
bombings of two Moscow apartment buildings. He was charged with 
unlawful possession of a firearm. Trepashkin, at the behest of a 
Russian parliamentarian, had been investigating the bombings and was 
expected to present findings that suggested the involvement of elements 
of the FSB in the crime. Russian officials, however, had been quick to 
characterize the bombings as terrorist attacks, and blamed Chechen 
separatists. Trepashkin had publicly announced that his research had 
left him with many suspicious findings, including a statement by the 
landlord of one of the buildings that the FSB had forced him to falsify 
the identity of a basement apartment tenant, the suspected source of 
the blast. In addition, Trepashkin charged that a bomb discovered in an 
apartment building in the city of Ryazan and safely detonated before it 
was set to explode, was admittedly placed there by FSB officers who 
were reportedly conducting a ``readiness exercise.''
  The weapon possession charge against Mr. Trepashkin fell apart in 
court as witnesses reported seeing a gun only in the hands of the 
arresting officer. However, the FSB seemed intent on derailing 
Trepashkin's independent inquiry, and subsequently claimed that Mr. 
Trepashkin had revealed classified material to unauthorized persons 
during the course of his investigation. In May 2004, a closed Moscow 
Military District Court found him guilty of divulging state secrets and 
sentenced him to four years in a labor camp.
  Mr. Speaker, it still seems that Mr. Trepashkin was prosecuted in 
order to prevent him from releasing potentially damaging information 
regarding FSB complicity in the bombings. In other words, the security 
services have apparently manipulated the Russian judicial system to 
``get its man.'' As the U.S. State Department expressed it 
diplomatically, ``The arrest and trial of Mikhail Trepashkin raised 
concerns about the undue influence of the FSB and arbitrary use of the 
judicial system.''
  Even though the United States and others had called for an honest and 
open investigation into the circumstances surrounding the case of Mr. 
Trepashkin, his situation remained unchanged until August 2005. 
Suddenly he was released early for good behavior after completing 
almost half of his original four-year sentence. Regrettably, his 
reprieve ended as abruptly as his release. Trepashkin was detained at 
his home and on September 16, 2005 the regional court of Sverdlovsk 
overturned the lower court's early release decision. The local 
prosecutor who assented to Mr. Trepaskin early release has now been 
fired.
  Trepashkin had written about the horrible jail conditions of his 
earlier imprisonment: hunger, sleep deprivation, withholding of 
medicine, and a substandard, lice-infested cell. It is now reported 
that conditions after his re-incarceration have become even worse. 
Apparently his comments to journalists during his brief release, 
detailing the poor jail conditions aroused the resentment of the prison 
guards and the administration. Trepashkin is reportedly in poor health, 
recently suffering an acute asthmatic attack.
  Mr. Speaker, the Trepashkin case appears fraught with blatant 
corruption by Russian law enforcement and unacceptable manipulation of 
the rule of law to satisfy political vendettas. If the FSB cannot 
endure criticism from outside and exposure of possible malfeasance 
within its ranks, how effective can it be in investigating and 
preventing genuine threats to Russia and beyond? I believe the Russian 
judiciary system would be better served if the court were to adhere to 
its original decision to release Mikhail Trepashkin from his 
unwarranted confinement and allow him to return to Moscow without fear 
of further reprisals. Persecution of those who seek the truth is not 
only a violation of an individual's human rights; it further erodes 
Russia's already weakened democracy.

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