A former military journalist, who was accused of giving state secrets to Japan, was freed yesterday by a Russian military court in Vladivostok. Capt. Grigory Pasko was given a three-year suspended sentence, with the judges taking advantage of an amnesty passed by the federal parliament earlier this year.
His six-month trial attracted the outrage of international human rights groups. When the judge announced that Capt. Pasko was free to go, his wife fainted and the courtroom burst into applause.
Capt. Pasko was arrested in November 1997 charged with giving video footage of a Russian ship dumping nuclear waste into the Japan Sea to NHK, a Japanese television station.
The court noted that a number of criminal violations were committed during the investigation by the Russian authorities, including the falsification of two intelligence service documents presented as evidence against Capt. Pasko.
The court also failed to find evidence that Capt. Pasko released state secrets to the Japanese, instead imposing the three-year sentence for the less serious crime of what it termed "abuse of power".
While Capt. Pasko admitted that he gave the video footage to the Japanese network, his lawyers argued that all information on the tapes was already in the public domain.
"I expected a tougher sentence," a relieved but tired Capt. Pasko said, had who faced a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. He has branded himself a "professional opponent" of the Russian intelligence service and said: "They will be sorry that they ever got involved with me." Immediately after sentencing, Capt. Pasko vowed to fight for a full acquittal. He is also to sue the police for their treatment of him.
During the trial, Amnesty International declared Capt. Pasko a prisoner of conscience while Reporters sans Frontieres attacked what it said were "serious irregularities" in the investigation.
Capt. Pasko is one of several Russians who have recently been either arrested or searched for allegedly revealing nuclear secrets. In St Petersburg, Mr Alexander Nikitin, a former submarine officer, could be charged with espionage after a probe into the environmental hazards posed by Russia's northern-based submarine fleet.
Earlier this month in Vladivostok, Mr Vladimir Soyfer, a leading scientist who works in affiliation with Moscow's Kurchatov nuclear institute, was searched by the Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB. He was researching pollution on Russia's Pacific Ocean coastline.
Capt. Pasko said after his trial: "Right now I am going back to prison, but this time only to pack up my things and tell all of my fellow inmates, who were rooting for me very much." Reporters were barred from the trial and Capt. Pasko had not spoken to journalists since his arrest 20 months ago.
"Freedom of speech is guaranteed by law in our country," he said in a defence speech published on the Internet last week. "However, the freedom of a person who exercises his right to free speech is guaranteed by nothing but the will of scoundrels. I found this out through experience," said Capt. Pasko.
In his statement last week, Capt. Pasko scoffed at the accusations against him, claiming none of the information on nuclear waste dumping was classified as secret, and hit out at Russian authorities for their conduct of the investigation against him.