Title

Chairman Wicker and Co-Chairman Smith Welcome Release of Bitkov Family from Prison

Thursday, June 07, 2018

WASHINGTON—Following today’s release of Irina and Anastasia Bitkov from prison in Guatemala and their reunification with Igor and Vladimir Bitkov, Helsinki Commission Chairman Sen. Roger Wicker (MS) and Co-Chairman Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04) issued the following statements:

“By freeing the Bitkov family, the government of Guatemala has demonstrated its commitment to the rule of law. Every effort must now be made to protect this family from further retribution by Russian authorities and to expedite the process of clearing their names, so that their long nightmare can end and they can live in peace,” said Chairman Wicker. “This will not be the last time that the Kremlin attempts to abuse the world’s courts and legal institutions to settle a vendetta. We must find ways to defend our international organizations from Russian propaganda and manipulation.”

“We should all rejoice with the Bitkovs that they are now no longer in prison—and keep working to secure their release from house arrest, and then bring to an end their persecution by the Russian government and CICIG,” said Co-Chairman Smith, who chaired an April 27 Helsinki Commission hearing to examine the role of the government of Russia and the UN’s International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) in the family’s imprisonment. “There must be accountability for the evident injustices they have suffered—but the top priority must remain the Bitkovs’ own safety and welfare.”

Chairman Wicker first raised the issue of the Bitkovs’ plight in a 2015 letter to the then-president of Guatemala, Alejandro Maldonado.

Media contact: 
Name: 
Stacy Hope
Email: 
csce[dot]press[at]mail[dot]house[dot]gov
Phone: 
202.225.1901
Relevant issues: 
Corruption
International Organizations
Relevant countries: 
Russian Federation
Leadership: 
Roger Wicker
  • Related content
  • Related content
Filter Topics Open Close
  • hearing

    Implementation of the Helsinki Accords Vol. V – The Right to Citizenship in the Soviet Union

    Thursday, May 04, 1978

    Commissioners Fascell and Pell, along with other commissioners and witnesses, discussed the plight of the witnesses themselves (musicians Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya). More specifically, these musicians, an acclaimed cellist and an opera singer, respectively, both arbitrarily had their citizenships revoked by Soviet authorities, without a fair trial (i.e. a right to an appeal, a hearing, and a right to a defense). These individuals’ predicament underscored similar situations of other Soviet citizens whom the government had revoked the citizenships of, a practice that the U.S. Supreme Court has classified as “cruel and unusual punishment.”  

  • hearing

    IMPLEMENTATION OF THE HELSINKI ACCORDS VOL. IV - REPORTS ON SOVIET REPRESSION AND THE BELGRADE CONFERENCE

    Sunday, June 05, 1977

    In light of first anniversary of the creation of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, this hearing focused on the work and the plight of courageous individuals who utilized the Helsinki accords as instruments for advancing international respect for human rights. In particular, the hearing delved into the case of Anatoly Shcharansky, one of the most courageous spokesmen of human rights in the U.S.S.R., faces treason charges as groundless as they are ominous. The Soviet decision to hold a show trial for Shcharansky with phony evidence and counterfeit witnesses combined with the earlier arrest of members of Helsinki monitoring groups in Russia, Ukraine, and most recently, in Georgia, were in violation of the Helsinki accords.

  • hearing

    Implementation of the Helsinki Accords Vol. III – Information Flow, And Cultural And Educational Exchanges

    Tuesday, May 17, 1977

    In this hearing, Commissioner Dante Fascell and others discussed the impact that the Helsinki Accords had on easing and expanding the flow of ideas and information across ideological and international frontiers. The rationale for this hearing, which consisted of three mornings of testimony, was that, while the Commission has had a long and storied history of hearing and discussing the movement of people, one goal of the Helsinki Accords is to diminish the obstacles that keep the views of others out, which are also the borders that restrict freedom of movement for people.

  • hearing

    Implementation of the Helsinki Accords Vol I - Human Rights and Contacts

    Wednesday, February 23, 1977

    This hearing focused on the implementation of the Helsinki Accords and explored proposals for advancing compliance.  The Commissioners and witnesses discussed how the accords could better East-West relations. They discussed how the framework of the Helsinki accords helps provide protection against armed intervention in internal affairs, or the threat of such intervention.  The Commissioners heard testimonies from those working on human rights in Warsaw Pact countries and from many American citizens seeking reunification with relatives in Warsaw Pact countries.

  • hearing

    East-West Economic Cooperation-Basket II-Helsinki Final Act

    Thursday, January 13, 1977

    Our immediate business is to look at Basket IT, whose scope is greater than mere questions of trade and commerce, because in many ways politics is economics. Basket IT was designed to enhance economic cooperation among CSCE states in a way to loosen restraints inhibiting dealings between the Soviet bloc and the West. The hearing will offer suggestions on resolving problems of trade with eastern CSCE states; and how the U.S. Government deals with Basket II problems and how it can improve the overall trade picture by exploiting Basket II provisions in order to bolster East-West trade initiatives.

  • hearing

    Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe

    Tuesday, May 06, 1975

    In July 1973 the Foreign Ministers of 33 European countries and the United States opened the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), in Helsinki. Since then the participants have made slow but steady progress on a broad range of security, political, economic and other issues of mutual concern. As the conference reaches what appears to be a conclusive stage interest in its eventual outcome has mounted both in Congress and throughout the Nation: Special concern has been expressed over the implications the Conference may have for such issues as human rights in Eastern Europe, the division of Germany, U.S. force levels in Europe, and the future of the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

  • map

    Our Impact by Country

Pages