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Reporters Sans Frontieres
15 July 1999
In a letter to the Russian justice minister, Pavel Krasheninnikov, Reporters sans Frontiиres (RSF) has protested against the continued detention of naval journalist Grigory Pasko, whose trial for "high treason" is due to end Thursday in the far eastern city of Vladivostok. Recalling that the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Russia is a signatory, guarantees the right to be tried within "a reasonable time" or be released during the proceedings and that it guarantees "freedom to receive or to communicate information or ideas without interference from the authorities and across frontiers", RSF considers that keeping Grigory Pasko in "preventive" detention for 19 months is not justified and that it constitutes an infringement of the journalist's fundamental rights. Robert Mйnard, secretary-general of the organisation, has expressed "serious concern over the outcome of the trial and fears that the way the investigation by the intelligence services and the trial have been conducted may tarnish the image of the of Russian legal system".
As the closed trial of Grigory Pasko draws to an end, Reporters sans Frontiиres wishes to draw the attention of Mr Krasheninnikov to the serious irregularities which have marred the investigation by the Federal Security Services (FSB). According to our information, justice ministry experts have concluded that FSB agents added forged documents to those seized from the journalist's home in November 1997. On April 23, after more than a year of investigation, Yuri Ralin, a prosecution witness, finally admitted that he had been pressured by investigators into making a false statement to incriminate the journalist. On June 24, a handwriting expert concluded that the signature of a second witness on a statement to FSB investigators was forged.
Reporters sans Frontiиres emphasises that Grigory Pasko's guilt has not been established. Even the prosecutor, Konstantin Osipenko, has said that his alleged acts of espionage "have not affected Russian national security". The information put out by the journalist, corroborated by environmental defence organisations, are public knowledge cannot constitute state secrets. By filming the discharge into the Sea of Japan of radioactive waste from Russian submarines, Grigory Pasko was simply informing the population about major ecological risks in the area.
Alexandre Levy Europe
desk researcher Reporters sans frontieres 5,
rue Geoffroy Marie 75 009 Paris
tel : 33 1 44 83 84 84, fax : 33 1 45 23 11 51
email : europe@rsf.fr