"We have lodged an appeal in connection with a breach of article 5 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which guarantees everyone the right to freedom and personal immunity," Anna Stavitskaya, a member of Danilov's defense team, said today.
The Russian Supreme Court will consider the cassation appeal on June 29.
"We are asking the Supreme Court to overturn the regional court's conviction and open a new trial," Stavitskaya said.
A Krasnoyarsk court sentenced Danilov to 14 years in prison after he was found guilty of high treason and fraud on November 24, 2004.
Stavitskaya said Danilov was being held in custody illegally. "Danilov was taken into custody in an arbitrary manner before the court issued its ruling," she said. "The prosecutor's office considered a conversation he had with journalists to be grounds for this move, as it decided he was thereby continuing his criminal activity and divulging state secrets."
Danilov, the head of the thermal physics center at Krasnoyarsk State Technical University, was charged with passing state secrets to China, which damaged Russia's national security.
The regional department of the Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) initiated legal proceedings against Danilov in May 2000. In February 2001, Danilov was taken into custody, but released on his own recognizance in September 2002. He was later arrested in court at the request of the local prosecutor's office in November 2004.
A jury acquitted the scientist on all counts in December 2003, but the Supreme Court later overturned the decision.
