10-03-2002


From: CJES center@monitoring.ru
To: enwle@lew.spb.org




Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations

CJES/Russia

29.09.2002

Defence Ministry Cancels Secret Decree That Jailed Pasko


MOSCOW, VLADIVOSTOK - The Russian Ministry of Defence has abolished a
secret decree that served as the basis for the conviction of military
journalist Grigory Pasko as well as the 5-year-long prosecution of
environmentalist Aleksander Nikitin, Pasko's lawyer, Ivan Pavlov, said
Tuesday.

Charles Digges, 2002-09-26 00:03

Conclusive evidence that the classified Defence Ministry Decree No.
055 had ceased to exist came to light during proceedings in which the
Supreme Court's Appeals Board was examining a private complaint filed
by Pasko against Judge Aleksander Koronets who had previously refused
to consider an earlier complaint lodged by Pasko against items
contained in Decree No. 055.

On Tuesday, the Appeals Board, led by Judge Aleksander Fedin
overturned the prior Judge's refusal to grant Pasko's complaint and
closed the case on the basis that secret decree No. 055 - which gave
the government wide latitude in defining state secrecy - had been
abolished by Defence Minister Igor Ivanov and no longer existed.
According to Pavlov, these documents cancelling the decree were in
evidence in court Wednesday.

Though the cancellation of the secret decree will not lead to Pasko's
freedom, it is an important legal victory in preventing further
prosecutorial fiascos like the Pasko and Nikitin cases, said Pavlov in
an interview. And even though a new - and equally secret - decree has
sprung up to take its place, Pavlov said he had been told in court
Tuesday by Defence Ministry representatives that many of the arguments
made against the old decree by Pasko's legal team had been "taken into
consideration" in the d raft of the new classified decree on state
secrets. A Defence Ministry official, who requested anonymity,
confirmed this.

"We cannot say that there will be no more Paskos or Nikitins, but
there will be significantly fewer of them," Pavlov said. "[The Defence
Ministry] has decided to correct some of its own mistakes."

But Pavlov quickly added that the situation compounds the "absurdity"
of Pasko's case. During hearings, Pavlov reported, Judge Fedin closed
the complaint case because, the judge said, he saw no purpose for
debate since the decree no longer exists.

"So now they say there is no issue to debate - a person is doing time
in jail, but they say there is no issue to debate," Pavlov fumed.
"It's a totally absurd situation, it means you can issue a decree, an
illegal decree, convict someone on the basis of it, throw him in jail,
then right after the conviction cancel the decree."

Nonetheless, Pavlov said, the fact that the Pasko case influenced the
contents of the new classified decree on state secrets, "may not be a
victory for Pasko, but it is a victory for society - a hopefully freer
society."

Pasko, a 40-year-old former reporter for the military Boyevaya Vakhta,
or Battle Watch, newspaper of the Russian Pacific Fleet, was sentenced
to four years' imprisonment on December 25th, for allegedly intending
to pass classified information on navy manoeuvres to Japanese media.
He also reported extensively on the Pacific Fleet's negligent handling
of its nuclear waste, including exposing evidence of dumping nuclear
waste at sea. The conviction was based on two now abolished secret
Defence Ministry de crees - Decree No. 055, and Decree No. 10 which
barred military personnel from fraternizing with foreigners. Decree
No. 10 was abolished by the Supreme Court in May.

The international response to Pasko's case has been different. Amnesty
International proclaimed Pasko Russia's third Prisoner of Conscience
since Andrei Sakharov and Bellona's Alexander Nikitin, and he has also
been nominated for the European Union's prestigious Sakharov Award for
freedom of thought.

All of this would seem to pave the way to Pasko's immediate freedom,
but the mechanics of Russian justice, Pavlov explained, are not that
simple.

"This case has long since jumped the judicial rails," he said. "It has
turned out that the [Supreme] Court will only look at this case from a
political point of view - whatever complaints have been filed, or will
be filed, they only care about saving face."

The "face" to be saved here, said Pavlov, is that of the judges and
security services, who instead of insisting on the mandatory 20-year
imprisonment Pasko was facing, reduced his sentence to four years,
leaving 28 months for him to serve after the 20 months he had spent in
detention were deducted.

"The security services viewed this as a compromise," said Pavlov. "But
how can you compromise with an innocent man?"

There have also been hints that Pasko's imprisonment is a trade off
for the acquittal of Nikitin in 2000, which was a bitter loss for the
security services. After Pasko's conviction, there were also Kremlin
overtures to amnesty. However, Pasko turned them all down on the basis
that amnesty is the refuge of the guilty - which he is not.

Any chance for freedom The best chances for Pasko's freedom therefore
lie in a so-called Supervisory Appeal, or nadzornaya zhaloba in
Russian, that his defence team will file before the end of this month.

This appeal would allow Pasko's defence team to file a complaint with
Supreme Court Chairman Vladimir Lebedev, or one of his deputies,
asking the chairman to look into the legality and foundations of
yesterday's decision.

If Lebedev accepts the appeal, it would be passed to the Presidium of
the Supreme Court where 15 judges would hear the appeal in court. The
verdict would be decided by a vote, and a simple majority would set
him free.

Pavlov said Tuesday that it is not clear when an answer could be
expected from Lebedev on the appeal.

There is also a chance that Pasko, who is currently in quarantine at
the prison camp to which he has been sent, may be set free early for
good behaviour. But both his wife, Galina Morozova, and his
Vladivostok-based attorney, Anatoly Pyshkin, said in interviews there
last week that they feared Pasko may become the target of harassment
of guards anxious to dash his chances.

"He's an educated man, not a common criminal, so I doubt he will get
into any trouble," said Morozova in an interview in Vladivostok. "But
we've heard of any number of threats, by guards, to plant contraband
on him, or start fights with him - all of which would put early
release in danger."

Defence Ministry learns from Pasko case According to Pavlov, the
Defence Ministry representatives he spoke with told him a team of 130
experts was assigned to write the new decree and that it had been done
with the Pasko case in mind. "Those representatives [of the Defence
Ministry] who were in the courtroom said they were grateful for the
fact that we explained to them a lot of things that they didn't
understand before," he said.

Many on the team that drafted the new decree, these ministry
representatives - as well as the ministry source - said, had cut their
professional teeth during the original Pasko interrogations, dating
back to 1997.

"Those experts got first hand experience [in the case] when we rubbed
it in their faces that they couldn't even make correct use of their
own decree, that their whole stance was illegal and contradicts the
Constitution," said Pavlov.

What's in the new decree? Among those items that are no longer
considered state secrets in the new decree is information about
military casualties and illnesses among servicemen, Pavlov said he was
told by Defence Ministry representatives, although they would give no
more examples. The Defence Ministry source confirmed these items are
absent from the new decree, but also refused to provide more details.

What likely remains in the new decree, said Pavlov, are items that
classify information about the shipment of submarine spent nuclear
fuel in Russia, and the scale of Russia's chemical weapons stockpiles.
Nikitin, who two weeks ago also went to the Supreme Court to argue
against decree No. 055 - to be told even then that the decree had
apparently been cancelled - also suggested that the new secrecy
document likely contains other restrictions on information about
atomic power and even education.

It is also likely to contain hundreds more - No. 055 contained more
than 600 - instances in which information can be considered
classified. The Defence Ministry official did say that the new secret
document listed "more than a few dozen instances" under which certain
information is considered a state secret, but would not be more
specific.

"Unfortunately we can't see [the new decree] yet, but I think sooner
or later we'll get to it, too," Pavlov said. "It would be hoped that
it contains mostly technical things, relative to weaponry, the
character of weaponry in a military sense."

But Pavlov vowed that "we'll get to it and we'll check if the
statements made by the Defence Ministry representatives [on Tuesday]
were true."

What the public knows about state secrets? At the heart of the
struggle that has dragged Nikitin through judicial humiliation for
five years until his full acquittal in 2000 and that now has its claws
in Pasko, is the extreme variance between the Defence Ministry's
classified decree on state secrets, and the Federal Law on State
Secrets that the public is allow to see.

Said Pavlov, if the decree No. 055 contains some 650 instances where a
state secret could be declared, the Federal Law on State Secrets
contains only some three dozen items.

But, said Pavlov, these instances are vague. "It's not a question of
quantity but of quality," he said. "A cursory reading of the published
Law on State Secrets leaves one lost. An average person really has no
idea what is classified and what is not." This then leaves the
security services with wide latitude in prosecuting treason cases.

Threats to the abolition of No. 055 It is precisely this latitude that
the government grants itself that leads Pavel Felgenhauer, an analyst
who writes on Russia's security and defence bureaucracies, to take a
sceptical view on the cancellation of No. 055.

"This is not a law-based country," Felgenhauer told Bellona Web.
"There's an old saying with the security services: 'Find me a man and
I'll find an article to prosecute him with.'" Felgenhauer said that
just because the Defence Ministry decides to re-write its secret
statutes on classified information, it doesn't mean, for instance, the
situation will become easier regarding other security agencies like
the Federal Security Service (FSB).

Felgenhauer added that the FSB has its "own version" of Decree. No.
055 to follow and could make arrests on its basis, even while the
Defence Ministry has thrown out a number of those things deemed
treasonous offences.

But Pavlov said that the importance of the Defence Ministry's decision
is that it will create a chain reaction and all of these security
structures will have to follow suit. "We disagree that these laws
should be classified and we will see the process through to the end."

Pavlov added, however, that, "state secrets in Russia are there and
must be there and they must be protected - but they mustn't be
amorphous, like rubber, so that they suck up a whole layer of
information that must be open to the public."

http://www.bellona.no/en/international/russia/envirorights/pasko/26086.html



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


http://www.cjes.ru/

Энвээльцы поддерживают Григория Пасько

Другие сообщения смотрите в разделе ПРАВО

Сообщения посетителей сайта

От: В.Захаров
Любой гражданин может ходатайствовать об освобождении Григория Пасько До вступления приговора в законную силу любой человек считается невиновным и в отношении его избирается та мера пресечения, которая адекватно соответствует требованиям справедливого отправления правосудия. Исходя из этого, Вы (независимо от места и страны проживания) можете подписать личное поручительство об изменении Григорию Пасько меры пресечения. Как это сделать - http://www.index.org.ru/pasko/hod.html

От:

От: Дмитрий
Ваш Пасько самый настоящий предатель. Мож хватит прекрываться экологией. Что-то это в последнее время модно стало все предатели - экологи. Хватаешь их-ах покушение на экологию, о будущем не думаем. Не знаю какой он эколог, а вот предатель отменный. В америке бы такой не менее 12 лет бы сидел.

От: Deila

От: Александр
Виновен или не виновен человек решает суд (а они это решили). Как можно поручаться за человека если не знаешь его и, тем более, всех обстоятельств дела? Я считаю, что мы имеем дело с чисто политической акцией по давлению на правосудие.От:

От:

От: Николай Андрущенко
Я физик и журналист, а посему могу оценить действия Григория Пасько профессионально. На сайтах я читал его приговор и его последнее слово. Что касается приговора, то уважая конституционный принцип независмости суда, я не могу написать здесь тех слов, которые заслуживают здостные правонарушители в судейских мантиях. За подобную непрофессиональную и явно тенденциозную \"услугу\" КГБ-ФСБ (сущность и методы не изменились) надо судить и дстквалифицировать самих судей. Что же касается лжепатриотов и злопыхателей на этом сайте, живуших категориями 37-го года, то \"совков\" в России хватит по крапйней мере до конца президентства Этого, случайного (по моему мнению) и на беду России президента. Советую вспомнить\"Карьеру Артура Уи\" Бертольда Брехта. По моему мнению что-то похожее происходит сейчас в России. А Григорию Пасько желаю продержаться. Ты, Гриша, состоялся, как Гражданин. Твои оппонеты, включая Путина и Патрушева так и остались ментально в \"совдепии\". Пожалей их, Гриша. Николай Андрущенко, физик, журналист

От:

От:

От: Сергей
Предатель есть предатель. И большинству нормальных людей это понятно. Весь шум по поводу Пасько бессмысленный по своей сути. Журналисты всего лишь выполняют заказ, понятно чей.

От:

От: