(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 4 March 2002 CPJ press release: CPJ Delegation Arrives in Vladivostok to Support Grigory Pasko Vladivostok, March 4, 2002 — Three representatives from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called for the release of jailed Russian journalist Grigory Pasko at a press conference in Vladivostok today. A CPJ request […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 4 March 2002 CPJ press release:
CPJ Delegation Arrives in Vladivostok to Support Grigory Pasko
Vladivostok, March 4, 2002 — Three representatives from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called for the release of jailed Russian journalist Grigory Pasko at a press conference in Vladivostok today.
A CPJ request to meet with Pasko in prison was turned down by a local military official, who said the request would be given a written response only within the next month. Pasko is serving a four-year sentence for treason.
“Grigory Pasko’s imprisonment will continue to be an embarrassment to the image of the Russian government until it is resolved, justice is done and Pasko is free,” said Terry Anderson, honorary co-chair of the CPJ board of directors, during the press conference at Vladivostok’s Press Development Institute.
After arriving in Vladivostok on Sunday, March 3, Anderson, CPJ Europe program coordinator Alex Lupis, and CPJ Europe researcher Olga Tarasov met with Sergei Ivashchenko, head of the local Committee for the Defense of Grigory Pasko, as well as with other Pasko supporters.
Today, the CPJ delegation held meetings with Ivan Rimkunas, head of the Military Collegium of the Pacific Fleet; Sergei Zhekov, head of the Regional Legislative Assembly; and James Schumaker, United States Consul General in Vladivostok. Discussions in these meetings focused on Pasko’s pending appeal before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court.
CPJ Delegation Denied Access to Pasko
Also this morning, the delegation submitted a written request to the Military Court of the Pacific Fleet, in person and in accordance with military procedures, to meet with Pasko during their visit to Vladivostok.
Sergei Volkov, head of the Military Court of the Pacific Fleet, refused to meet with the delegation to discuss the request and stated, through an intermediary, that he would respond to the request in writing within the next month.
Background Information
Pasko, an investigative reporter with Boyevaya Vakhta (Battle Watch), a newspaper published by the Pacific Fleet, was arrested in November 1997 and charged with passing classified documents to Japanese news outlets. He spent 20 months in prison while awaiting trial.
In July 1999, he was acquitted on treason charges but found guilty of abusing his authority as an officer. He was immediately amnestied, but four months later the Military Collegium of the Russian Supreme Court canceled the Vladivostok court’s verdict and ordered a new trial.
During the second trial in late 2001, Pasko’s defense demonstrated that the proceedings lacked a basis in Russian law. Article 7 of the Federal Law on State Secrets, which stipulates that information about environmental dangers cannot be classified, protects Pasko’s work on sensitive issues, such as radioactive pollution. The prosecution relied on a secret Ministry of Defense decree (No. 055) even though the Russian Constitution bars the use of secret legislation in criminal cases.
The defense also challenged the veracity of many of the witnesses, several of whom acknowledged that the Federal Security Service (FSB) falsified their statements or tried to persuade them to give false testimony. An FSB investigator had been reprimanded for falsifying evidence in the first trial, and the signatures of two people who witnessed a search of the reporter’s apartment were forged.
In mid-February the Military Collegium of the Russian Supreme Court nullified two Defense Ministry decrees used in convicting Pasko on December 25, 2001. The conviction is on appeal before the Military Collegium.
