An Arkhangelsk regional court has rejected a parole appeal from Igor Sutyagin, a military analyst who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for espionage in 2000, saying he "has not mended his ways."
Friday's ruling upholds a lower court's denial of parole because of five minor reprimands Sutyagin has received from prison officials during his incarceration, Sutyagin’s lawyer Anna Stavitskaya said by phone Monday.
One of the reprimands was administered for crumbs on Sutyagin's bedside table and another for his sole cell phone conversation with his wife, Stavitskaya said.
"I do not think it is the kind of violations that makes him hopeless, particularly since I believe he is not guilty of espionage," she said.
An arms-control analyst at the USA and Canada Institute, Sutyagin was found guilty of treason for selling a research paper on Russian nuclear submarines and missile warning systems to a British company that the Federal Security Service has linked to the CIA.
Sutyagin maintained that his research used only publicly available information.
Sutyagin is allowed to file another parole petition in six months and will do so, Stavitskaya said.
He has received 10 formal commendations in prison, including some for tutoring inmates and issuing a stengazeta, or an in-house newspaper, his lawyer said.
Sutyagin has also completed three courses for new professions in prison, Stavitskaya said, without elaborating.
This year, the European Court of Human Rights is expected to hear Sutyagin's appeal to be cleared of espionage charges, Stavitskaya said.
Sutyagin, who is serving the longest prison term for espionage charges since Soviet times, has been named a political prisoner by Amnesty International. Human rights activists have called his case the start of an FSB-orchestrated campaign against researchers, which began early in Vladimir Putin's first term as president.
Several scientists, including TsNIIMash-Export head Igor Reshetin and physicists Valentin Danilov and Oskar Kaibyshev, were subsequently convicted on espionage charges in recent years.
In 2007, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called on Russian authorities to release Sutyagin.
Sutyagin had filed pardon petitions to Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev, but the pleas were rejected.
The case against Sutyagin was based on the Defense Ministry's secret order No. 055, which lists military state secrets.
A 1996 presidential decree explicitly permits secret orders to be used in criminal prosecution.
In April 2002, Alexander Nikitin, an environmental and human rights activist, appealed the 1996 decree, saying it violated the Constitution, which prohibits lim iting civil rights by secret laws.
The Supreme Court rejected Nikitin's case on a technicality, ruling that private citizens have no right to challenge presidential decrees in court.