Moscow, 9 December 2002 (RFE/RL) -- Amnesty International today demanded the immediate release of Russian environmental journalist Grigorii Pasko, who is serving a four-year prison term for treason. The London-based rights group said in a statement that Pasko's conviction for exercising what it called "his basic human right of freedom of expression" is an example "of the denial of justice that is the fate of other victims of human rights violations in Russia."
Pasko, a former naval officer who wrote an expose in 1993 concerning Russian Navy dumping of nuclear waste in the Pacific, was sentenced to a four-year term for treason last year in December. The Russian Supreme Court in June upheld the conviction against him.
Pasko was working in Vladivostok as a correspondent for the newspaper "Boevaya Vakhta" when he was arrested in 1997 by the Federal Security Service.
Pasko, a former naval officer who wrote an expose in 1993 concerning Russian Navy dumping of nuclear waste in the Pacific, was sentenced to a four-year term for treason last year in December. The Russian Supreme Court in June upheld the conviction against him.
Pasko was working in Vladivostok as a correspondent for the newspaper "Boevaya Vakhta" when he was arrested in 1997 by the Federal Security Service.