#5
Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001
Subject: Prosecutor dismisses half of charges against Pasko
From: "John P. Deever" <john@isar.org>
Dear David: Thorough summaries of the latest events in Grigory Pasko's 9-year sentence for treason are being quickly posted on the Bellona website, http://www.bellona.no. An short excerpt from Jon Gauslaa's most recent announcement from Friday's events follows.
John P. Deever
Publications Program
Initiative for Social Action and Renewal in Eurasia
1601 Connecticut Ave NW #301
Washington DC 20009
tel: 202-387-3034, fax: 202-667-3291
http://www.isar.org
Charges significantly limited
In his closing speech, prosecutor Aleksandr Kondakov dismissed more than half of the charges against Pasko. Kondakov also made other changes, that indicates that even he realises that his case is a weak one.
Jon Gauslaa, 2001-12-14 20:41
Kondakov dismissed five of the ten episodes Pasko were charged with. Still he asked the Court to declare Pasko guilty in state treason under article 275 of the Penal Code, to strip him of all his military distinctions and to sentence him to nine years of hard labour.
No helmet for Putin
This is three years below the minimum sentence for state treason. The reason why Kondakov went way below the minimum sentence is that Pasko is the father of two children, and that it was not established that his actions had inserted any damage.
The latter is interesting, as the admirals Dorogin and Zakharenko, who in early November were flown in from Moscow in order to testify, despite not being entered on the list of witnesses, both insisted that the damage caused by Pasko had been huge. Zakharenko even claimed that the Fleet had to re-work all its battle plans because of Pasko.
However, there were also aggravating circumstances in the case, said Kondakov, and brought special attention to "the fact" that there is still an official state of war between Russia and Japan, since the two countries have never signed a peace-treaty after WW II.
This lead to the following remark from Anatoly Pyshkin, one of Pasko's attorneys, -- How come then, that president Putin did not wear a battle helmet last time he visited Japan?
The prosecutor's resurrection
At the end of the prosecutor's speech, an argument erupted between Kondakov and Pasko's other attorney Ivan Pavlov, who asked the prosecutor if he had agreed his position with his superiors. The prosecutor returned the question and asked if Pavlov had agreed his position with his superiors as well. -- Do you mean with the CIA, Pavlov asked ironically. Kondakov remained silent, but this seemed to be exactly what he meant.
[[remainder of this article available at www.bellona.no]]
Journalist Grigory Pasko was arrested on November 20, 1997 on charges of espionage on behalf of the Japanese TV-channel NHK. He was acquitted in July 1999, but convicted of 'abuse of official authority' and freed under an amnesty. Seeking a full acquittal, Pasko appealed, but so did the prosecution, insisting he was a spy. On November 21, 2000 the Military Supreme Court sent the case back for a re-trial at the Pacific Fleet Court, where the re-trial has been going on since July 11, 2001.
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