Contents Russian

The case of Grigory Pasko Brief survey

Mr. Pasko, the commander of Russian Navy, is the corresondent of the nespaper of the Russian Navy in Pacific Ocean"Boyevaya Vakhta"(Vladivostok).

The main themes of his articles are utilisation of nuclear submarines and processing of radioactive waste materials.

In spite of violent resistance all his published articles concerning these issues were approved by the editor-in-chief as it is prescribed.

Grigoriy Pasko also worked in Japanese mass-media - newspaper "Asahi" and TV company NHK

The 13 of November when Pasko was leaving for business travel to Japan all preparatory materials he had with him were withdrawn in the airport of Vladivostok. He received all these documents legally, and the use and publishing of them are not restricted.

The 20 of November on his way back Mr. Pasko was arrested in the airport of Vladivostok and is under the arrest till now.

He was accused in high treason.

The rights of G. Pasko have been continiously infringed by investigating bodies since the illegal withdrawal of papers in the airport till today (the investigating bodies denied all solicitations of independent examination of withdrawn materials, of changing the mode of suppression, of permission of wife's visits to prison, of keeping the legal norms of custody).

The activities of investigating bodies are realized with such rough infringements of law that the criminal case would be ceased irrespectively of the substance of the accusation. For example, the strict order of searching and withdrawal is infringed, the materials received by illegally overheard telephone conversations are filed to the case, etc.

Meanwhile, all these infringements didn't help the investigating bodies to proove the accusation.

The incriminated article of criminal code "High Treason"suppose three ways of committing the crime:

1. Espionage. The prosecution itself declared in public that Mr. Pasko was not an agent, had no network and was not recruited by any secret service.
2. Divulgence of State secret. The investigating bodies didn't find the prooves of such divulgence and intend to incriminate Mr.Pasko the fact that in accordance with conclusions of experts the withdrawn materials in whole (the materials withdrawn in the airport and during the search at Pasko's home) may contain the information which can be considered as State secret though each document itself does not contain any secret.
   On these grounds the prosecution incriminate him "the collection and keeping of information containing the State secret with intention of its divulgence".
3. Other assistance rendered to foreign state, foreign organization or its representatives in hostile activities to the detriment of security of Russia. The investigating bodies have no information concerning hostile activities of the newspaper "Asahi" and TV company NHK to the detriment of security of Russia. Meanwhile, the representatives of FSS many times declared that Mr.Pasko rendered assistance to foreigners for big remuniration. Mr.Pasko had no business contacts with any foreign institutions except the above mentioned ones. So, this part of accusation is not only an attempt to charge Mr. Pasko illegally but also a hostile attack upon Japanese mass media.

However, the prosecution intends to obtain conviction, and taking into account that

• the bodies controlling lawfulness of the secret services' activities did not stop the illegal procedures of investigation,
• the case will be heard not by an independent court but by the Tribunal of the Russian Navy in Pacific Ocean and the investigation is being realized by the Security Service of the same Navy,
• the trial will be held in camera, there are all the grounds to apprehend that the journalist Grigory Pasko will be illegally convicted.