(WiPC/IFEX) – On 25 June 2002, the Supreme Court’s military division in Moscow upheld the verdict of treason against environmental journalist, Grigory Pasko, now serving a two-year and four months sentence in Vladivostok. International PEN is shocked at the decision to uphold the sentence, considering Pasko’s imprisonment to be a blatant violation of his right […]
(WiPC/IFEX) – On 25 June 2002, the Supreme Court’s military division in Moscow upheld the
verdict of treason against environmental journalist, Grigory Pasko, now serving a two-year and four months sentence in Vladivostok. International PEN is shocked at the decision to uphold the sentence, considering Pasko’s imprisonment to be a blatant violation of his right to freedom of expression.
Pasko was first arrested in November 1997 after having written on and obtained video footage of the Russian Pacific Fleet dumping nuclear waste and old weapons into the sea. At the time Pasko was a navy captain, working for its newspaper “Boyevaya Vakhta” (“Battle Watch”). He also worked as a freelancer for the Japanese press.
Pasko was charged with gathering classified information with the intention of passing it on to Japan. He remained detained until July 1999 when a military court dismissed all ten charges of treason against him, although he was sentenced to three years imprisonment for abuse of his military office. This sentence was wiped out by an amnesty. However, in November 2000, the
prosecuting authorities’ appeal against Pasko’s acquittal was accepted, and once again Pasko found himself in court.
The second trial started in March 2001 and hopes were high that Pasko would once again be acquitted, hence the wide-spread shock at the 25 December decision that he be sentenced to four years in prison, reduced to 28 months to take into account the 20 months he had already served in jail. All but one of the ten counts of espionage were again dismissed. However, the court concluded that one count, based on notes that he had taken while covering a meeting of the Pacific Fleet in September 1997 for “Boyevaya Vakhta” and found in his flat when arrested two months later, did contain classified information.
The 25 June appeal hearing upheld the original verdict, but did make some changes to the wording which removed reference to Pasko having illegally attended the meeting of the Pacific Fleet, as well as to having maintained contact with foreigners. However, this had no impact on the sentence itself. Pasko’s legal team intends to appeal against the 25 June decision to higher bodies.
Despite calls for the appeal hearing to be made public, military prosecutor, Igor Murashkin, maintained that the hearing be held in secret, and ordered out 70 journalists present in the court-room who had hoped to report on the trial. Due to the great distance between Vladivostok and Moscow, Pasko was himself unable to attend the trial. Alexander Tkachenko of the Russian Centre of International PEN was given formal permission to attend hearings alongside Pasko’s lawyers.
Pasko will remain in prison in Vladivostok where he is preparing to edit a journal on ecology and law.
For further details see the Bellona Web-site: www.bellona.no
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
– stating that you consider Pasko to be detained solely for the legitimate practice of his profession as a journalist and in direct denial of his right to freedom of expression
– calling on the authorities to order Pasko’s immediate release and to halt further judicial
proceedings
Appeals To
His Excellency Vladimir Putin
President of the Russian Federation
The Kremlin
Moscow, Russia
Fax: +7 095 206 5173 / 206 6277
Also send appeals to the Russian ambassador in your country asking him/her to forward your concerns to the appropriate persons in Russia and also asking for the embassy’s own comments.
Personal messages may also be sent directly to Grigory Pasko’s email, pasko@vlad.ru .
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
