Alexander Nikitin served as nuclear engineer onboard nuclear submarine. He retired in 1992 and then in 1994 he contributed to the Bellona report The Russian Northern Fleet:Sources of Radioactive Contamination. The chapter he wrote concerned nuclear accidents aboard Russian nuclear submarines. The Russian law prohibits to make secret about environment accidents. Besides, at that time the Russian law did not have the list of information pertaining to state secret, so the Russian citizens could not know what is actually state secret. The Russian Security Service, or FSB (former KGB), charged Nikitin with espionage and state treason. Amnesty International considerd him to be a prisoner of conscience who was held solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression. Many other human rights organisations around the world raised concerns regarding this case. Alexander Nikitin spent 10 months in detention, went through 13 court hearings before he was finally acquitted by the Presidium of the Russian Supreme court in 2000. This the only case in the Soviet-Russian history when the person was fully acuitted of state treason charges. Today Alexander Nikitin works as the chairman of the Environmental Rights Center Bellona, St Petersburg.

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