Grigory Pasko

Grigory Pasko is a journalist and poet who worked for the Russian Navy’s newspaper Boyevaya Vakhta and also as a freelance journalist for the Japanese media, including the newspaper Asahi.

After reporting on Russia dumping nuclear waste into the sea, Pasko was arrested in 1997 for the possession of state secrets with the intent to supply them abroad. Initially he was acquitted of ten charges of treason but charged with abusing his military office. The sentence was, however, wiped out by an amnesty.

Pasko was later convicted and sentenced on appeal by the prosecution; on 25 December 2001 he was found guilty of one of the ten charges of treason brought against him; notes Pasko had taken as a journalist present at a meeting of the Pacific Fleet were deemed to contain classified information. He was sentenced to four years imprisonment, although the 20 months he had already spent in prison were taken into account, reducing the sentence to two years and four months.

From the time of Pasko's arrest, international human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International, Bellona and International PEN, questioned the legitimacy of proceedings against him. They raised concerns that he was being prosecuted in violation of his right to free expression, in punishment for reporting on an issue that was very much in the public interest. Along with several other PEN centres worldwide, English PEN adopted Pasko as an honorary member and campaigned for his release.

Pasko was released on 23 January 2003, when a civilian court in Ussuriysk over-ruled the previous decisions made by military courts.

Pasko edits and writes for the magazine Environment and Rights. In May 2005, he visited London to take part in English PEN's Right to Dissent evening.