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Reporters Sans Frontieres
International Secretariat
Europe and ex-USSR Desk

Mr Krasheninnikov, Minister of Justice
Moscow, Russia

Paris, 17 February 1999

Sir,
Reporters Sans Frontieres, an independent organisation working for press freedom worldwide, wishes to protest against the removal of defence lawyer Karen Narcissiane from the case against Russian journalist Grigory Pasko by the Vladivostok military court.

According to our information, when Grigory Pasko's trial reopened on 16 February, Karen Narcissiane, who had been representing the journalist, did not appear in court. At the previous hearing on 20 January, he had told the press: "The ten charges against Mr Pasko are connected with ecological safety issues which he dealt with in his reports, with the permission of his superiors." On 28 January the lawyer was taken off the case because the judges felt he had contravened the ban on not giving information to the press, and also accused him of making misplaced statements during the trial.

Reporters Sans Frontieres asks you to use all your influence to enable Karen Narcissiane to resume his role of defending Grigory Pasko. In addition, we call for the trial to be held in public and for the journalist to be released from preventive detention. He has been imprisoned since 20 November 1997.

Yours faithfully,
Robert Menard
General Secretary

CC : President's Office - Prime Minister's Office - Ministry of Justice - AFP - Reuter - AP - World Association of Newspapers - Amnesty International - Article 19 - Canadian Committee to Protect Journalists - United Nations - Commission on Human Rights - Committee to Protect Journalists - Council of Europe - International Federation of Human Rights - International Federation of Journalists - Fund for Free Expression - Index on Censorship - International Pen - International Press Institute - European Parliament - UNESCO - World Press Freedom Committee.