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Russia Military Reporter on Trial
December 3, 2001
By ANATOLY MEDETSKY
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AP) - A Russian military journalist on trial for treason asserted Monday that the Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, would pressure the court to convict him.
Grigory Pasko and his supporters say the treason charges are retribution by the security service, known by its Russian acronym FSB, for his reporting on alleged environmental abuses by the Russian navy, including dumping of radioactive waste into the Sea of Japan.
``There is no doubt that the FSB will attempt to use its decades-old arsenal of means of illegal pressure on the court with the purpose of obtaining the verdict it favors,'' Pasko said in a statement to the Pacific Fleet military court.
Pasko is one of several Russian whistle-blowers and researchers accused of espionage for passing allegedly classified information to foreigners. Arms control researcher Igor Sutyagin is on trial in Kaluga in central Russia on charges of spying for the United States.
Pasko is accused of divulging state secrets on the combat-readiness of the Pacific Fleet to Japanese news media. Pasko, formerly a reporter for the Pacific Fleet newspaper Boyevaya Vakhta, or Military Watch, faces between 12 and 20 years in prison if convicted.
He was acquitted of espionage in 1999 in the same case, but found guilty on lesser charges of abuse of office. Seeking a full acquittal, Pasko appealed the verdict, as did prosecutors. The Supreme Court in Moscow sent the case back for trial by a different judge.
Pasko said he came to the conclusion the FSB was pressuring the court to convict him because the prosecutor did not object to 23 defense motions during the five-month retrial, yet did not agree to drop the charges.
A guilty verdict would ``revive the feeling of fear in people and discourage rights advocates, ecologists and my colleagues, journalists, from researching the state of affairs in areas that certain agencies want closed from public monitoring,'' Pasko said.
The defense had initially praised the court as impartial but said that was no longer the case.
``The closer the end (of the trial) approaches, the more we can feel the court's nervousness and someone pressuring it,'' defense lawyer Ivan Pavlov said.
FSB spokeswoman Natalya Stupnitskaya said the security agency would not comment until the retrial is over.
The court recessed until Friday, when the prosecution is expected to make a statement.
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