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Mission Statement
The Committee on Human Rights of Scientists of the New York Academy of Sciences was formed in 1978 to pursue the advancement of the basic human rights of our colleagues throughout the world. The Committee intervenes in cases where scientists, engineers, health professionals, and educators are detained, imprisoned, exiled, murdered, "disappeared," or deprived of the rights to pursue science, communicate their findings with their peers and the general public, and travel freely in accordance with established policies of the International Council for Science.
Committee on Human Rights reaffirms its support for academic freedom of scholarly exchange. •Read Committee’s Statement
The New York Academy of Sciences Committee of Human Rights reaffirms its position of strongly opposing the boycott of Israeli academics by the University and College Union of the United Kingdom.
•Read the letter - June 19, 2007 | United Kingdom
NATFHE, National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education, at its annual conference in Blackpool from May 27-29, 2006, intends to vote on the issue of boycotting academic personnel and institutions in Israel.
•Read the letter - May 17, 2007 | United Kingdom
The NYAS Human Rights of Scientists Committee Protests the boycott of Haifa and Bar-Ilan Universities
• Read letter to to Angela Rogers - April 26, 2005 | United Kingdom
The NYAS Human Rights of Scientists Committee Issues Statement On Boycott
•Read the press release | United Kingdom
The Committee urges the Israeli authorities that the Al-Quds University not be affected by the closure of the offices of Dr. Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al-Quds University and Palestinian representative in East Jerusalem.
April 2005 In view of a new initiative by a group of members of the Association of University Teachers Annual Council, being held this month in Eastbourne, England, to debate whether to boycott three Israeli universities (Haifa University, Bar-Ilan University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem), the Human Rights Committee of the New York Academy of Sciences strongly reaffirms its support for academic freedom of scholarly exchange without political restrictions. In particular, the Human Rights Committee wishes to strongly restate its previous position of May 2002. •Read the Committee's Statement
April 6, 2005 Acts of Repression Against the Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba
Ex-prisoners of conscience and members of the executive board of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba, Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello and Rene Gomez Manzano, denounced from Havana that their telephones are interrupted, cutting all their communication with members of the peaceful opposition movement in Cuba and with the international community. >>more
Statement on Scientific Exchange with Cuban Scholars
The Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces the ban on travel to Cuba, recently denied licenses to a group of 70 American doctors and researchers who planned to attend the Fourth International Symposium on Coma and Death in Cuba. The conference started on March 9.
The agency “determined that the applicants had not provided sufficient information to qualify for the licenses,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
| posted 3/8/04
The Human Rights Committee of the New York Academy of Sciences deplores the impediment imposed on the free circulation of scientists by the United States government using a technicality to prevent bona fide scientific exchange with Cuban colleagues. Continuation of this policy would be detrimental to the advancement of science in the United States. | posted 3/11/04
Statement on National Security and Scientific Freedom Our Committee on the Human Rights of Scientists has endorsed a statement on "Science and Security in an Age of Terrorism" released recently by the Presidents of the National Academies. details>>
ICSU Statement endorsed by the NYAS Committee on Human Rights Read the International Council for Science statement details>>
Statement on the moratorium on grants and contracts with research institutions in Israel Our Committee on the Human Rights of Scientists issued a statement about a proposal circulating in Europe calling for a moratorium on grants and contracts with research institutions in Israel. details>>
Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award
This year's recipients of the Heinz R. Pagels Award, bestowed annually by the New York Academy of Sciences in recognition of services on behalf of the human rights of scientists, were honored as part of the Academy's 188th Annual Business Meeting on September 28, 2006.
Joseph Birman. Prof. Joseph Birman is being honored by the Academy "for his lifelong efforts on behalf of repressed scientists throughout the world."
>> Read the press release >> Past winners
Global Initiatives
The committee has intervened in numerous cases to ameliorate the restricted conditions of individual scientists and to secure for them the protections of the rule of law. Russian physicist Andrei Sakharov and Chinese dissident Fang Lizhi made their first U.S. appearances at the Academy and credited the committee for coordinating the international pressure that led to their releases. The committee marshaled the scientific community on behalf of Wen Ho Lee, the Chinese-American scientist accused of mishandling classified information, and Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello, a Cuban economist jailed for her human rights activities. Other countries where the committee has taken action in recent years are Belorussia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Kenya, Palestinian Authority, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Vietnam.
The Academy also actively engages in fostering cooperation between scientists in the United States and other nations. For example, the Academy was among the early group of scientific societies that gave support to establishing productive working relations between U.S. and Chinese scientists after former President Richard M. Nixon's historic visit to China. These parallel efforts are integral to the role and mission of the Academy and the committee.
For further information on the committee, contact Svetlana Stone-Wachtel, 212.298.8645.
Azerbaijan
November 7, 2005. Professor Eldar Salayev was detained on October 27, 2005. •Letter on his behalf - 11/7/05
Aleksandr Milinkevich, detained by riot police and sentenced to 15 days of imprisonment. •Read the letter on his behalf - 5/2/2006
November 20, 2005
Commission de Recherche et d'Informations Indépendantes sur la Radioactivité (CRIIRAD) has set up the CRIIRAD-Bandazhevsky Research Laboratory •Read the report translated from the French
August 5, 2005
Professor Yuri Bandazhevsky was conditionally released. He had served half of his original eight-year prison sentence. He is now at home in Minsk.
While Professor Bandazhevsky will reportedly be permitted to resume his scientific work, the Belarusian authorities will garnish his wages until he pays a total of 35 million rubles (approximately $17,000) which the court claims represents a portion of the bribes that he allegedly received.
May 15, 2005
We received an email [link to CRIIRAD.doc] from the French Non-Governemental Organization, CRIIRAD, that together with Professor Bandazhevskii they will construct a biomedical research laboratory at Minsk in Belarus called the CRIIRAD-Bandazhevsky Laboratory. To this aim, CRIIRAD is launching an international call. •Read email from CRIIRAD. • For details of this call, see this link.
March 15, 2005
The Committee received a response to our February letter from the Minister of Justice of Belarus. •Read the translation of this letter.
On March 11, 2004 the Committee on Human Rights received a response from the Ministry of Justice of Belarus Republic in reference to the case of Bandazhevskii Yurii Ivanovich, former Rector of Gomel Medical School. See the original letter written in Russian or the English translation.
•Letter from Ministry of Justice (English translation) - 1/26/04
Professor Yury Bandazhevsky, a medical academic specializing in nuclear medicine, was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment on 18 June, 2001. In addition, the Belarusian authorities confiscated his property and prohibited him from assuming any managerial and political functions for the first five years after his release.
Tong Shindong, a retained 72-year-old Chinese physics professor was conditionally released. He reportedly was granted two reductions in his sentence totaling 39 months for good behavior and because of his advanced age. It is our understanding that he will be deprived of his political rights for the next three years, including freedom of expression, assembly, and association, in accordance with his original sentence. Professor Tong was sentenced in 1999 to 10 years imprisonment for “subverting state powers” for attempting to lawfully register a chapter of the opposition China Democracy Party (CDP).
RELEASED - July 21, 2004
Chinese military authorities have released the prominent surgeon Dr. Jiang Yanyong.
June 1, 2004
On June 1, 2004, Chinese military officials have arrested Dr. Jiang Yanyong, medical doctor who wrote an open letter to the Chinese Parliament calling for an official reassessment of the events of June 4, 1989 at Tiananmen Square, and his wife, Hua Zongwei. She was released two weeks later
Dr. Jiang became an international figure in the spring of 2004 when he publicly exposed information about the number of cases of people suffering from SARS in China.
•Read letter on his behalf - 7/15/04
RELEASED - April 3, 2004
Ding Zilin and two other women, members of a protest group called Tiananmen Mothers, were released from custody after domestic and international appeals for their freedom, family members told the New York Times.
March 29, 2004
Ding Zilin, former professor at Beijing's Renmin University, was arrested on March 28, 2004 by the National Security police. Ding Zilin was the recipient of the 1996 Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights Award given by our committee.
•Read letter on her behalf - 3/29/04
RELEASED - March 5, 2004
The Chinese government released Wang Youcai, graduate student in physics at Beijing University. In 1998, Wang was sentenced to eleven years in prison for subversion after he and two other dissidents formed the China Democratic Party. Wang has served nearly two years in prison for his role in the the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
RELEASED - December 2003 Liu Di, 23, a student at Beijing Normal University was released from prison on the November 28, 2003. Liu Di, 23, a student at Beijing Normal University, was detained in November 2002 for writing satirical essays on the Internet using the pseudonym "Stainless Steel Mouse." Details of the releases were given by the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy. The Centre said Liu Di had been granted bail, which is a rare move with Chinese dissidents, so her release might indicate she is free to return to her post-graduate work in psychology.
•Letter on her behalf - 3/11/03
Marta Beatriz Roque
Cuban dissident wants end to harassment
•Read the article - 8/23/2006
Marta Beatriz Roque beaten by a mob in Havana on April 26, 2006
Marta Beatriz Roque, 2002 Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award winner, urged the European Union to modify its policy toward Cuba.
•Read the article - 5/3/2006
Cuban police raid the Havana home of medical doctor Dariel “Darsi” Ferrer
4/3/06 | Dr. Dariel “Darsi” Ferrer
On November 29, 2005, uniformed Cuban police raided the home of Doctor Ferrer.
•Read the letter on his behalf.
Dr. Oscar E. Biscet, published November 8, 2005
The Director of Combinado del Este Prison in Havana, Lieutenant Colonel Miguel Azcuy, informed family members of prisoner of conscience, Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet, that Dr. Biscet is currently in Maximum Severity System: Phase 1and that as long as he refuses to put on the uniform of common prisoner, he will not receive any privileges and that his situation in prison could get even worse.
The prison director confirmed that due to a new administration at Combinado del Este Penitentiary, the situation of the Cuban doctor changed after August, 2005. Neither Dr. Biscet nor his wife and parents, who have been subjected to mistreatment during their last three visits to the prison, had been informed of this.
Dr. Biscet, who suffers from hypertension, chronic gastritis, and high cholesterol, has not been able to receive the food items his family brings him. This food follows the diet that his poor state of health requires. The number of family visits has been reduced, and instead of being every 45 days, the visits will now be every four months (two hours long), during which time Dr. Biscet will be able to receive his items of personal hygiene and some food. His cell frequently lacks water, and his is not permitted to go outside into the sunlight daily, as is stated in prison rules. (He is only allowed to go outside every 8 10 days.)
This report about the critical situation of prisoner of conscience is signed by his wife, Elsa Morejon Hernandez, and his parents, Hilda G. Gonzalez Alvarez and Luis N. Biscet Cadet. •Read the letter
August 19 2005
According to AP, the Cuban government has confiscated the land where an unprecedented gathering of Cuban dissidents took place earlier this year.
July 23, 2005
Cuba released three women including dissident leader Martha Beatriz Roque on Saturday but continued holding other opponents of President Fidel Castro detained in a roundup on Friday. •Read the Reuters articles
April 6, 2005 Acts of Repression Against the Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba
Ex-prisoners of conscience and members of the executive board of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba, Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello and Rene Gomez Manzano, denounced from Havana that their telephones are interrupted, cutting all their communication with members of the peaceful opposition movement in Cuba and with the international community.
Cuban authorities are also threatening members of the pro democracy movement throughout the island in order to obstruct any and all participation to the meeting planned by the Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba for May 20, 2005. The objective of this encounter is to discuss all problems related to the promotion and development of Cuban civil society.
Wide dissemination of these acts of repression is urgently needed. The Cuban regime is violating the rights of Cuban citizens who are peacefully struggling for a democratic change in Cuba.
Information from Havana,Cuba provided via telephone to the organization in Miami, USA, Plantados Hasta La Libertad en Cuba.
December 7, 2004 Havana, Dec 7 (EFE) - Cuban dissident Marta Beatriz Roque said Tuesday that the recent release of several imprisoned opponents is a public-relations gambit by the Fidel
Castro regime and demanded the unconditional release of all other political detainees.
Along with fellow dissidents Felix Bonne and Rene Gomez Manzano, Roque on Tuesday called what her like-named group calls "a general assembly of Cuban civil
society," to which foreign heads of state, lawmakers and political figures have already been invited.
Over the past several days, Cuba's Communist regime has released on parole seven of 75 peaceful dissidents imprisoned last year. All, including poet and writer Raul
River, had serious health problems.
Roque, 60, said those releases are "just another way in which the Cuban government tries to clean up its image." •Read complete article
October 21, 2004
Cuban Prisoner of conscience, Dr. Oscar Biscet is transferred to another prison cell.
As authorities in Prison Kilo 8 in the province of Pinar del Rio attempted to film Dr. Biscet handcuffed in front of the Public Prosecutor, the Prison Director and others, he made a victory sign with his fingers and cried out: "down with the Castro dictatorship!"
•Update received from his wife, Elsa Morejon
July 22, 2004 - RELEASED
The government has released Martha Beatrice Roque, an economist and one of the country's most prominent dissidents, from prison, for health reasons. Ms. Roque, who is 59, suffers from diabetes, and was the only woman among 76 Cuban dissidents imprisoned by President Fidel Castro last year. She was serving a 20-year term. Until we are all back on the streets, there is no gesture here," she said after her release.
July 22, 2004
Elsa Morejon has confirmed that Dr. Biscet remains incommunicado in solitary confinement.
June 17, 2004
In an e-mail, Elsa Morejon, the wife of Oscar Biscet, informs us that she is allowed to see her husband two hours every three months. His health is okay at this time.
June 7, 2004
Cuban prisoner of conscience Dr. Oscar E. Biscet and his family are being isolated, and subjected to mistreatment by the government in the island. •Letter from his family - 6/7/04
April 22, 2004
On Saturday May 1, 2004 Miami Dade Community College will recognize imprisoned Cuban political dissident Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, president of the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights, with an Honorary Degree at 5pm at the Kendall Campus commencement. Knight Foundation CEO Hodding Carter III will be the keynote speaker at that event.
The Human Rights Committee appealed to Kofi Annan on behalf of imprisoned Cuban dissidents, including Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello •Read the letter - 6/18/03
The Human Rights Committee appealed to President Carter to make a public appeal to President Castro. •Read the letter - 6/9/03
Human Rights Abuses in Cuba Increase As World Focuses On Iraq: NYAS Human Rights Committee Supports Jailed Scientists in Cuba
July 25, 2003. According to an urgent call from Maria de los Angeles Falcon Cabello, neice of Martha Beatriz Roue Cabello, we have learned that Martha Beatriz was hopitalized at the Carlos J. Finlay Military Hospital in Havana, due to high blood pressure, chest pain, and nose bleeding.
June 2003. In the last three weeks Cuban government, in an unprecedented crackdown on political dissidents, arrested a large number of intellectuals- human rights advocates: scientists, independent journalists, and directors of independent libraries. After facilitated summary trials that lasted only a few hours, the dissidents were given jail terms ranging from 12 to 27 years. Marta Beatriz Roque, 56, the director of the Cuban Institue of Independent Economists and leader of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society (an umbrella organization of 300 human rights groups), has been sentenced to 20 years on April 7, 2003. She is a recipient of the 2002 Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award by the NYAS.
Oscar E. Biscet
Physician, founder of the Lawton Human Rights Committee, was rearrested only a month after being released after serving a three-year prison sentence in December 2002. Dr. Biscet was sentenced to 25 years in prison on April 10, 2003.
•
Fax sent by Dr. Biscet's wife, Elsa Morejon - 6/5/03
Saad Eddin Ibrahim Director of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies and sociology professor at the American University in Cairo.
March 18, 2003. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, whose imprisonment drew widespread international condemnation, was cleared of all charges against him. At his retrial, the Court of Cassation, a nine-judge panel of the court acquitted Ibrahim of defaming Egypt and illegally accepting money from foreign sources through his Khaldun Center for Developmental Studies. The decision, which cannot be appealed by the government, brought the high-profile case to a close after nearly three years, two earlier trials, numerous appeals and rebukes of Egypt from the United States, the European Union and human rights organizations.
December 3, 2002. Egypt's highest court ordered a new trial for Dr. Ibrahim. He was released immediately after the ruling. The ruling provides for a third trial, which is scheduled to begin on January 7, 2003. During this trial, Egyptian law will allow Dr. Ibrahim's defense lawyers to address the substance of the case.
Dr. Ibrahim was greeted by several of his colleagues as he was released from Tora prison in Cairo. His wife barbara states, "It's a wonderful day for me, for my husband, for Egyptians and justice in this country." Her immediate concern is for her husband's health. Dr. Ibrahim suffers from a neurological disorder that prevents sufficient oxygen from reaching his brain. He also broke his leg while in prison earlier this year and now walks with a cane.
July 29, 2002. Egypt's Court of Cassation in Cairo has again sentenced Dr. Ibrahim to a seven-year prison term.
May 2001. Dr. Ibrahim was originally convicted of illegally accepting funds from the European Union, designated for a pro-democracy documentary that detailed corruption in Egypt's voting practices. European Union officials have issued an affidavit stating it did not believe its grants were misused by Professor Ibrahim's Ibn Khaldun Center. One of the main defendants, Khaled Fayad, also on trial for charges similar to Dr. Ibrahim's, said he was forced during his imprisonment to falsely accuse Ibrahim of embezzlement.
March 5, 2007 | Mesfin Woldemariam
Professor Mesfin Woldemariam faces a prison sentence in another trial. The Federal High Court on March 5, 2007 ruled that the prosecutor had presented enough evidence showing Professor Mesfin had instigated a student riot in August 2001.
See letter to Condoleezza Rice, Rep. Donald Payne, Senator Joe Biden, Senator Tom Harkin, Senator Sam Brownback,Senator Russ Feingold, Senator Richard Lugar, and Rep. Tom Lantos - 3/9/07
November 2, 2005. Two academics at the Addis Ababa University were detained.
•
November 2005
Professor Mesfin Woldemariam, 75-year-old founder and former chairman of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, has been detained since early November 2005 following opposition party demonstrations to protest peacefully against illegal fraud in Ethiopia’s May 2005 elections. He is being held in Kaliti prison in Addis Ababa with restricted access to his family and legal representation. Letter on their behalf - 11/8/05
January 2003. The Ethiopian government is targeting educators and students with a policy of harsh repression. See the 52-page report "Lessons in Repression: Violation of Academic Freedom in Ethiopia" released by Human Rights Watch's Academic Freedom Committee. http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/ethiopia0103/
June 2002. Ephraim Mammo, retired president of Alemayehu University in Harar and hundreds of students were arrested in the past two months in the Oromia region.
Released Prisoner of Conscience
On May 14, 2002 Dr. Taye Woldesmayat, president of the Ethiopian Teachers' Association was released from prison. Upon his release, Dr. Taye stated that peace would only happen in Ethiopia when all citizens freely exercise their rights. He called for the release of all political prisoners in Ethiopia.
The Committee took action on behalf of Dr. Taye between his original arrest on May 6, 1996 through his sentence to fifteen years in prison, until his May release.
April 22, 2004
Guatemalan President Oscar Berger publicly acknowledged the government's responsibility for the 1990 killing of anthropologist Myrna Mack. In a ceremony at the Presidential Palace, he stated, “In the name of the state, I ask for the forgiveness of the Mack family and of the people of Guatemala for the murder of this young anthropologist.” Myrna Mack was stabbed 27 times outside of her Guatemala City office on September 11, 1990. Her death was believed to be a political killing in retaliation for an academic report she wrote that detailed the killing of Mayan civilians by the military during the country's 36-year internal armed conflict. It estimated that between 1960 and 1994, when the official peace accords were signed, over 200,000 people were killed, the majority of them Mayan civilians.
April 2003. There has been a recent increase in threats, intimidation, and attacks against anthropologists working with the Fundación de Antropología Forense de Guatemala (Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation, FAFG) and their family members.
In late February and again in early March 2002, several forensic anthropologists received threatening letters and phone calls. The eleven scientists are associated with two non-governmental organizations that are carrying out exhumations of victims massacred during the counter-insurgency campaign of the military of Guatemala in the early 1980s.
Maharam Kamrani and Ebrahim Rashidi Arrested
On March 30, 2006 Maharam Kamrani, a medical doctor, and Ebrahim Rashidi, an engineer, arrested, apparently for work on behalf of the rights of the Azeri Turk minority. •Letter on their behalf - 4/27/06
September 2005
Manuchehr Mohammadi has been granted temporary medical leave from prison in order to receive hospital treatment for his gingivitis (gum disease) and problems with his kidneys and digestive system. It is not known how long he will be on medical leave.
August 2005
Manuchehr Mohammadi, student activist and political prisoner from Nov 1999, has gone into coma.
•Letter on his behalf — 8/4/05
March 18, 2003 Amir Abbas Fakhravar. The medical student was beaten in front of judges, court officials and both his parents, Bench 26 of the Revolutionary Court in north Tehran. He is now believed to be in Qasr prison with common law prisoners.
Statement on Boycott of Israeli Academics from Haifa University and Bar-Ilan University
April 26, 2005
The NYAS Human Rights of Scientists Committee sends a letter to protest the boycott of Haifa and Bar-Ilan Universities and issues a press release. See letter to the AUT president.
•Read letter to the AUT president. •Read the press release April 22, 2005
The Association of University Teachers (AUT) of the United Kingdom decided to boycott Haifa University and Bar-Ilan University in Israel. •See AUT website
A call by European scholars to suspend European - Israeli academic and cultural ties prompted the Committee to issue a statement on "Free Circulation of Science and Merit-Driven Awards".
Libyan court convicted five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor In May 6, 2004, a Libyan court convicted five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor of deliberately infecting 400 children with HIV and causing the death of 40 children. They were sentenced to death by firing squad. The medical professionals have repeatedly claimed their innocence. Expert witnesses, including Dr. Luc Montagnier, the researcher who first isolated the HIV virus, testified that the children’s infections were caused by poor hygiene at the hospital and not an international conspiracy or intentional actions on the part of the nurses and doctors as the prosecution claimed. Dr. Montagnier presented a report that demonstrated that the infection had already begun before the accused started working at the hospital, and continued to spread after they were arrested.
Aung San Suu Kyi - Detained May 2003. Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Laureate, pro-democracy leader, and anthropologist was seized on May 30. Her arrest came one year after she was released from 19 months of house arrest with assurances that the government would free political prisoners.
Salai Tun Than - Released! May 4, 2003. The Burmese government released 18 political prisoners including Dr. Salai Tun Than. As a condition of their release, the individuals are not allowed to engage in any further political activities. Any violation of this provision will result in re-arrest to serve out the remainder of the original sentences.
Salai Tun Than, former rector of the Yezin University, sentenced to seven years in prison for conducting a peaceful protest on November 29, 2001 in front of Rangoon City Hall. He distributed copies of a petition letter calling on the Burmese government to hold a general election in one year and to transfer power to the winner.
October 2002 - Released Khin Tun, MD U Cho, teacher U Kyi Myint, teacher U Zaw Pe Win, teacher
September 25, 2002 - Detained Khin Tun, MD U Cho, teacher; U Zaw Pe Win, teacher and former chair of BUDP; U Kyi Myint, teacher and former general secretary of Burma United Democratic Party (BUDP); U Win Swe, civil engineer; and 25 other people were detained. It is not known where they are being held or if they have been charged.
Oscar Kaibyshev | August 9, 2006 Supreme Court of Bashkiria passed a six year conditional sentence upon
Oskar Kaibyshev intends to appeal the sentence, but the lawyers don’t advise him to do it.
•Read the article in the Kommersant, Russia's daily online
Growing pattern of persecution of scientists in Russia May 3, 2006
The Human Rights Committee of the New York Academy of Sciences expresses its concern about what appears to us to be a growing pattern of persecution of scientists and baseless accusations of espionage, revealing classified data, exporting secret technologies and other intrusions on individual human rights. •Read the letter.
Dr. Valentin Danilov | posted January 9, 2006 Dr. Valentin Danilov's lawyer appealed to the European Court to protect Danilov's rights. The claim concerns the violation of four provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights. • For more information,
see the NEAR website.
February 2005. Dr. Oscar A. Kaibyshev.
Dr. Oscar A. Kaibyshev, former director of the Institute for Metal Superplasticity Problems (IMSP), a division of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was charged and suspended from his post for illegally exporting technology and research to South Korea. •Letter on his behalf - 2/25/2005
Dr. Valentin Danilov, head of the Thermo-Physics Center at the Krasnoyarsk State Technical University
On December 29, 2003, Dr. Danilov was acquitted by a jury of the charges. Notwithstanding this acquittal, the Russian Supreme Court subsequently overturned the jury verdict, by reason of "significant procedural violations" and directed another jury trial. •Letter on his behalf - 11/9/04 •Letter on his behalf - 6/24/04 •Letter on his behalf - 5/21/01
Dr. Igor Sutyagin
The Committee on Human Rights has joined the petition drive on behalf of Dr. Igor Sutyagin
August 18, 2004 The Supreme Court upheld the convection of Igor Sutyagin, sentenced to 15 years of hard larbor for spying.
Dr. Igor Sutyagin, a chief of the section on military
technology research at Moscow's USA and Canada Institute. Detained in October
1999, charged with espionage and high treason. Dr. Sutyagin was conducting
interviews on military-civilian relations in Russia and in 11 other post-communist
countries, as part of a Canadian-funded research project.
April 7, 2004
Dr. Igor Sutyagin, former senior staff researcher at the Institute of USA and Canadian Studies, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for spying. •Letter on his behalf - 4/9/04
March 15, 2004
Dr. Sutyagin's second trial resumed.
September 25, 2003. The Moscow city court began hearings on the second trial of Dr. Sutagin. The hearings were delayed a week after the original start date after the defense lawyers requested more time. The prosecutors agreed that Dr. Sutyagin had been limited in his ability to read the indictment. He was not allowed to take notes of any kind or keep the document with him until a week prior to the hearings. Dr. Sutyagin's defense had no access to the text of the indictment.
June 27, 2002. Russian authorities transferred Dr. Igor Sutyagin to a Moscow prison, and the investigation into his case was also transferred from the kaluga branch to the central department of the Federal Security Service (FSB).
March/April 2002. The Russian Supreme Court has granted Dr. Sutyagin appeal of a regional court decision and will hear the appeal in March of April of this year. It is the second investigation that Dr. Sutyagin's lawyers are appealing in the Supreme Court. They are also asking the court to release Dr. Sutyagin from pretrial detention on humanitarian grounds. According to reports, prison conditions are harsh and his cell is severely overcrowded. His health has deteriorated significantly during his more than two years in detention. After a decision of the Kaluga Regional court on December 27, 2001, Dr. Igor Sutyagin faced yet another round of investigation and continued imprisonment.
Letter on his behalf - July 25, 2001 Written jointly with the Committee of Concerned Scientists, Inc., the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, and the Committee on the Int'l. Freedom of Scientists
November 10, 2006 Aref Dalilah, the former dean of the Faculty of Economics of Aleppo University and a founding member of the Committee for the Revival of civil Society was arrested in 2001 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. •Letter of his behalf - November 1, 2006 •Letter of his behalf - April 17, 2002
July 2003 Hamdi Sebit, engineering student Michael Kustober, education student Mohammed Ibrahim, sociology student
These three students at Juma University in Khartoum were arrested during a protest and are being held incommunicado in an unknown location. They were among many students marching to show their disapproval of the Vice-Chancellor of the university's refusal to postpone student union elections until after all students had registered.
June 2005
"Destroying the Life and Career of a Valued Physician-Scientist Who Tried to Protect Us from Plague: Was it Really Necessary?" by Barbara E. Murray and 13 colleagues, Clinical Infectious Disease, vol. 40, no. 11, 1 June 2005.
•Read about the book
April 2004
Dr. Thomas Butler will appeal. The appeal will be held in the 5th Circuit Court in Louisiana some time in 2005.
March 2004
Dr. Thomas C. Butler was sentenced to two years in prison, even though a jury had cleared him of the most serious charge. Dr. Butler was fined $15,000 and is to pay $38,675 in restitution to Texas Tech in Lubbock. He remains free on bond until April 14 and has ten days to decide whether to appeal his convictions.
The Committee on the Human Rights of Scientists of the New York Academy of Sciences has released the text of a letter it has sent today to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft protesting the U.S. government's prosecution of Dr. Thomas Butler, an infectious-disease expert recently indicted for allegedly mishandling plague samples.
October 29, 2004
The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial and the Human Rights Committee of the New York Academy of Sciences have issued a joint press release on behalf of Dr. Que. •Read the Press release. - 11/1/04
October 26, 2004
On September 22, 2004, the Vietnamese government informed friends of Dr. Que that he had been moved to an isolated and remote area in Thanh Hoa Province, 1200 miles north of Saigon and 130 miles south of Hanoi. Dr. Que's wife has not yet been given permission to visit him, although it will take her two days to travel to the prison and he is in need of medication and medical attention. •Letter on his behalf. - 10/26/04
September 29, 2004
The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial and the Human Rights Committee of the New York Academy of Sciences sent a letter to the President of the Committee of the International Red Cross urging him to send members of the International Red Cross to visit Dr. Que in prison •Letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross. - 9/29/04
July 29, 2004
Dr. Nguyen Dan Que has been sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in jail, reported an official from a court in Ho Chi Minh City. The official declined to specify the charge.
July 23, 2004
The four Co-Chairs of the Congressional Vietnam Caucus — Tom Davis (R-VA), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), Chris Smith (R-NJ) — are circulating a "Dear Colleague" and letter on behalf of Dr. Nguyen Dan Que.
The plan is to get this letter to the President of Vietnam by the middle of next week, before he is put on trial there.
July 20, 2004
Prisoner of conscience Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, who was due to go to trial on charges of espionage on July 19 has his trial postponed, reported until July 29. Dr. Que has had no legal representation since his arrest on March 3, 2003.
May 24, 2004
The Board of Governors of the New York Academy of Sciences at the recommendation of its Human Rights of Scientists COMmittee has awarded the 2004 Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights Award to Dr. Nguyen Dan Que in recognition of his courage and singular responsibility as a medical doctor committed to the welfare and health care of the Vietnamese people and for peacefully promoting human rights in Vietnam. The award is to be presented at the Academy's Annual Meeting on Monday, September 13, 2004.
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