Russia’s Supreme Court began deliberating on an appeal by jailed journalist, Grigory Pasko, against a spying conviction imposed for what campaigners say were legitimate whistle-blowing activities.
Reporters were allowed briefly into the courthouse on Tuesday before the closed-door hearings got under way to reconsider a conviction branded by Pasko’s defenders as the product of ”pressure from the FSB”, the Russian security services.
A ruling was expected later in the day.
Pasko, a 40-year-old former reporter for the newspaper of the Russian Pacific Fleet, was sentenced to four years imprisonment in December 2001 for illegally collecting classified information on navy manoeuvres with the aim of passing it on to Japanese media.
Environmental protection and human rights groups said the conviction was motivated by ”political reprisal” for a 1993 expose he wrote of the Russian navy dumping nuclear waste in the Pacific.
Calling for the hearings to be made public, Pasko’s lawyer, Genry Reznik, said the defence was ”convinced that there is nothing secret involved in this case, and we are not going to reveal anything that the court could describe as state secrets”.
Military prosecutor, Igor Murashkin, insisted the hearings should be held behind closed doors, and was backed by the court president who said that ”issues relating to state secrets could be mentioned during the hearings”.
Pasko was represented in court by three defence lawyers.
The court, however, ruled that the president of the Russian PEN Club, defending media rights, could attend the hearings as a representative of civil society.
The court decision on whether to confirm Pasko’s conviction, to maintain or amend his sentence, to refer the case back to a lower court or to acquit him will be taken by three judges.
Pasko is currently imprisoned in the Pacific port city of Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East.
He has consistently denied the charge against him and accused the FSB of forging evidence against him.
His conviction has been denounced by human rights groups in several countries, including France, Germany and the United States. – Sapa-AFP