20.03.2000

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We are grateful to you for your efforts to help young Jewish mathematician

Dmitry Neverovky who is imprisoned in Russia. Unfortunately Dmitry is still

kept in dreadful conditions of Russian custody and which is more - he is

forced to undergo a psychiatric examination.

We ask you to support the desperate Appeal of Dmitry Neverovsky's mother

Tatyana Kotlyar to US First Lady. We are sure that Hillary Clinton's

personal request to observe humanity and Rule of the Law addressed to

Russian Acting President Vladimir Putin may prove to be crucially helpful

in this case.

ACTION ALERT by the Union of Councils is attached.

Boris Altshuler,

Head of the "Movement without Frontieres" and of the "Right of Child" NGOs

Moscow

_______________________________________________________________

TO: FIRST LADY

White House

USA

March 19, 2000

Dear Mrs. Hillary Clinton,

I am compelled to ask you for help.

My son Dmitrty Neverovsky, 26 years old Jewish mathematician who

refused to serve in the Russian Army because of his beliefs and because of

the massacre of peaceful population in Chechnya committed by Russian

troops, was sentenced to two years of imprisonment for this refusal and

have already spent 4 months in terrible conditions of Russian custody.

There are 30 prisoners kept in the 8-bed cell, there is no heating when

frost, Dmitry was twice placed into the punishment-cell which is actually a

sort of torture.

Dmitry's punishment is illegal since he did not violate Russian

Law at all. He officially asked to replace the Army service for the

alternative civil service which is permitted by Russian Constitution. His

punishment is also unusually cruel. Four Members of the Russian Parliament

asked the Court to release Dmitry on bail. Court ignored these

solicitations, and more than that - ordered that Dmitry should undergo

compulsory psychiatric examination. This resembles the worst Soviet

practice of psychiatric reprisals for one's convictions. Isn't it a

military authorities' revenge on one who had courage to oppose their brutal

politics. I am afraid that there is no fair trial in Russia nowadays.

Dear Mrs. Clinton, being a Woman and a Mother you hopefully may

well understand my feelings. I know that your personal request to Vladimir

Putin to observe humanity and Rule of the Law may really save my son Dmitry

Neverovsky. This is my last resort. I ask for your help.

Sincerely and with hope:

Tatiana KOTLYAR

19/1, Koshevogo st., Obninsk, Kaluga Region,

Russia.

Fax: (7-095) 255-2318

_______________________________________________________

ATTACHMENT:

ACTION ALERT

JEWISH PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE SENT BACK TO JAIL

Judge Orders Psychiatric Examination

On Friday March 3rd, the Obninsk City Court in the Kaluga region sent the

case of Dmitry Neverovsky back to prosecutors "for further investigation"

and refused to let him out of prison pending a possible re-trial. To make

matters worse, the judge ordered that Neverovsky be forced to undergo a

psychiatric examination.

In the Soviet period, psychiatrists frequently tortured dissidents using

pain inducing and mind altering drugs and routinely made politically

motivated diagnoses. The head of the Kaluga Psychiatric Hospital, who

remains at his post today, was responsible for the psychiatric detention of

several Soviet dissidents. Over the past year in Russia, a well known

journalist and some religious minorities have been threatened with or

placed in psychiatric detention. Neverovsky may become the latest victim

of this gruesome Soviet practice, which seems to be making a come back.

It appears that rather than bring his case back for another trial, the

Obninsk authorities are leaning towards declaring Neverovsky insane and

throwing away the key.

Background Information

Dmitry Neverovsky is a young (26) Jewish man from the Russian city of

Obninsk in the Kaluga region. He is a member of the Antimilitary Radical

Association, a local advocacy organization. He has consistently stated his

refusal to serve in the Russian military's brutal war in Chechnya. His

mother, Tatyana Kotlyar, is a deputy of the Obninsk City Council and the

head of the Obninsk Regional Group for the Defense of Rights, a

participating member in the joint Moscow Helsinki Group/UCSJ regional human

rights monitoring project.

On November 25, 1999 Neverovsky was convicted of refusing military service

(Article 328, part 1 of the Criminal Code) and sentenced to two years in

prison by the Obninsk City Court. He has been incarcerated ever since.

According to the U.S. State Department, conditions in Russian detention

enters and prisons are so harsh that between 10-20,000 prisoners died last

year, mostly from poor health caused by overcrowding and disease.

Neverovsky has been placed in a freezing punishment cell twice and on one

occasion beaten by a guard. Although antisemitism has not been proven as a

motive for prosecution, the fact that in December 1998 the Russian

government classified Kaluga as a region with particularly high levels of

extremist antisemitic activity means that antisemitic motives in this case

cannot be ruled out.

Legal Issues

The Russian Constitution (Article 59, Part 3) guarantees the right to

alternative service, but no federal law regulating alternative service has

ever been passed. However, the Constitutional Court ruled on May 22, 1996

that a person requesting alternative service cannot be prosecuted for

evading military service.

Immediate Action Requested

Please write to Acting President Vladimir Putin asking that charges against

Neverovsky be immediately dropped in accordance with the Russian

Constitution's guarantee of alternative civilian service. PLEASE SEND YOUR

EMAILS TO action@ucsj.com or FAX a letter to our national office at (202)

775-9776 or SEND LETTERS to: UCSJ, 1819 H. St., NW Suite 230, Washington,

D.C. 20006. We will then collect and forward your appeals to the relevant

authorities. PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THIS EMAIL AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE.

Sample Letter

The Honorable Vladimir V. Putin

Acting President of the Russian Federation

The Kremlin

Moscow

Dear Mr. Putin:

I am writing on behalf of Dmitry Neverovsky, a young man from Obninsk,

Kaluga Oblast who on November 25, 1999 was sentenced to two years in prison

by the Obninsk City Court for refusing military service (Article 328, Part

1 of the Criminal Code). He remains in custody today in the Kaluga Oblast

Prison. On March 3, 2000, the Obninsk City Court sent Neverovsky's case

back to prosecutors for further investigation and ordered that he undergo a

psychiatric examination.

The decision of the Obninsk City Court was a clear violation of Mr.

Neverovsky's constitutional right to alternative civilian service. At his

first trial, Mr. Neverovsky stated that because of his convictions, he

could not serve in the military and insisted that he be allowed to serve

alternative civilian service in line with his constitutionally guaranteed

rights. Article 59, Part 3 of the Russian Constitution states that, "A

citizen of the Russian Federation whose convictions and faith are at odds

with military service, and also in other cases stipulated by the federal

law shall have the right to the substitution of alternative civil service

for military service." In addition, the Constitutional Court ruled on May

22, 1996 that the constitutional right to alternative civilian service must

be respected whether or not corresponding federal legislation exists.

Neverovsky has been twice placed in an unheated punishment cell and was hit

by a prison guard with a club. The psychiatric test that the judge ordered

at the urging of the prosecutor appears to be a ploy by the local

authorities to avoid a retrial by declaring Neverovsky insane and placing

him in psychiatric detention, where he may be subjected to other forms of

pressure and mistreatment.

Mr. Putin, it is clear that the actions of the Obninsk law enforcement

authorities are in violation of the Russian Constitution. In line with

your government's stated commitment to rule of law and reform, I

respectfully ask that you intercede in the case of Dmitry Neverovsky and

ensure that the unconstitutional charges that the Obninsk law enforcement

authorities have brought against him be immediately dropped.

Sincerely,

Name

Address or Home Country and City

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