Landmark Court Case Won byMirzayanov

In a landmark legal victory, the chemist Vil Mirzayanov, who was tried for leaking state secrets, won a 30 million ruble (about $15,500) suit Wednesday against the Public Prosecutor's Office and his former employer for causing damage to his moral and physical state.The Perovsky district court in eastern Moscow ordered the Public Prosecutor's Office and the leading Russian chemical weapons institute to pay Mirzayanov 20 million rubles and 10 million rubles, respectively, to compensate the scientist for his ordeal during the 15-month investigation and trial. It ended in February with the government dropping all charges.However, the court rejected the suit by the chemist against the Federal Counterintelligence Service which, Mirzayanov said, must be held responsible for the actions of its predecessor, the Security Ministry.The verdict was believed to be the first case in Russia or the Soviet Union in which a citizen has successfully sued the Public Prosecutor's Office for violating civil or political rights."This case will enter the history of Russian judicial practice,"Alexander Asnis, Mirzayanov's lawyer, said in his address to the court before the decision was announced."This is the first case when the choice rests with the court: To defend the state which has infringed a citizen's rights, or to defend the citizen," Asnis said.Mikhail Yefremov, a representative of the Institute of Organic Chemistry, said his organization would appeal the ruling by Judge Mikhail Vorobyov. But several human rights activists in Moscow praised the court's decision, saying it set a precedent establishing that an individual could secure legal redress in court for abuses by the Public Prosecutor."This shows that judges in Russia are really becoming independent," said Alexander Petrov, a representative of Helsinki Watch, the international human rights organization. "This is probably the first such case involving civil and political liberties."Alexander Podrabinek, the editor of the human rights publication Express Khronika, said he knew of several suits against the Public Prosecutor, but none of the suits were granted, he said.Mirzayanov sued the Federal Counterintelligence Service, the Public Prosecutor's Office and the State Institute of Organic Chemistry three weeks ago for 40 million rubles in compensation for fabricating his case and imprisoning him during the investigation and trial.Mirzayanov, 59, who headed the counterintrelligence department at Russia's leading military chemical research center, was charged with revealing state secrets after he co-wrote an article in 1992 that accused Russia of concealing chemical weapons .During the process, Mirzayanov was kept in jail for 12 days in 1992 and for a month this year for refusing to attend his trial, because he said the proceedings were based on secret instructions and some evidence in the case had been fabricated.Yefimov, who represented the institute, said the deputy director followed an instruction, which is still secret, when he wrote a letter to the Security Ministry in 1992 asking it to "decide the question of bringing criminal charges" against Mirzayanov.But Mirzayanov argued that no such instruction exists and that the institute's letter served as a pretext for the authorities to start his persecution and retaliate for his criticism.Lev Baranov, head of the defense and security section of Public Prosecutor's office, denied at the trial that his organization had abused Mirzayanov's rights, but he did not wait for the end of the five-hour session.Yury Kastanov , representing the Federal Counterintelligence Service, said it could not be held responsible for the actions of the investigation department of the Security Ministry, the former KGB, which acted against Mirzayanov. The investigation department was transferred to the Public Prosecutor after the ministry's dissolution in 1993."There are the formalities, it is impossible to do anything," Mirzayanov said in an interview after the trial. "But I think it is a good warning to them," he added.Immediately after the trial, Mirzayanov shook hands with Kastanov, saying he admired the lawyer's "iron logic."Alexander Mikhailov, the chief press spokesman for the service, said the investigation was closely watched and sanctioned by the public prosecutor until it ended and therefore was conducted legally.Asnis said he hoped to win the appeal in the city court. "If the court is objective, it can at the most reduce the amount of compensation," Asnis said. "I think today's decision will hold."