UPDATE - Russian eco-warrior jailed for treason
Date: 27-Dec-01
Country: RUSSIA
Author: Oleg Zhunusov
The decision stunned Pasko, a military journalist who walked free after his original trial two years ago and had expected to be cleared at the retrial, which has highlighted concerns about media freedom.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called the verdict an outrage.
The panel of three judges threw out nine of the 10 charges against the ex-navy captain but found him guilty of high treason in the form of espionage and ordered he serve his sentence in a high-security prison.
"I find the sentence absolutely incomprehensible," Pasko said. He was then handcuffed and led from the court, the same room where he walked free two years ago after a five-month trial.
Although freed under an amnesty, he had been found guilty of a lesser charge and sought the retrial to defend his innocence.
Pasko's lawyer Ivan Pavlov looked shocked by the court's ruling: "The verdict is illegal and we will appeal tomorrow."
His defence was built on a Russian law stipulating that information about environmental dangers could not be classified.
Pasko had been accused of telling a Japanese newspaper the locations in the Sea of Japan where the Russian navy had dumped toxic waste.
CPJ deputy director Joel Simpson said the verdict was an act of revenge.
"Today's ruling demonstrates that the trial of Grigory Pasko was nothing more than a political vendetta against a journalist who made public information that embarrassed the Russian military but served the public," Simpson said in a statement.
Sergei Mironov, the new speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, has said he would urge President Vladimir Putin to grant a pardon should Pasko lose his case, NTV television said.
OATH-BREAKER
Alexander Zdanovich, spokesman for the Federal Security Service (FSB) which brought the case, said it was not about covering up the damage to the environment done by the navy.
"Pasko was taken to court not as a journalist who was gathering information, but as an officer with access to secret information, who was present at secret meetings and who swore an oath of loyalty to Russia and a pledge to keep safe information that would become known to him," he told Radio Russia.
Pasko, a navy captain, was arrested in November 1997 by counter-intelligence agents on his return from Japan.
He spent 20 months in prison ahead of his first trial, at which he was cleared of high treason in July 1999. He was convicted on a lesser charge of exceeding his authority as an officer, but freed under the amnesty.
Pasko wrote about his experiences during his 18 months in detention ahead of his first trial.
At a news conference to publicise the book, "Case No. 10: Grigory Pasko against the FSB", Pasko said Russia was gripped by a "spy mania", accusing the FSB of persecuting people like himself to justify their existence.
Pasko's retrial came against the background of a spate of cases by the FSB against ecologists and researchers after Putin, a former FSB chief, became head of state.
Alexei Simonov, head of the Glasnost Defence Fund, which campaigns for human rights, told Ekho Moskvy radio that Pasko's conviction "can be interpreted as a victory for the intelligence services lobby over justice and sober reasoning".
