Release of Journalist Grigory Pasko
Reporters Without Borders welcomed a court's decision today to release Grigory Pasko, a journalist with the environmentalist magazine Ekologiya i pravo and former correspondent for the military newspaper Boevaya Vakhta. The court in the far-eastern city of Ussuriisk gave Pasko remission for good conduct, to which all prisoners are entitled on completion of two thirds of their sentence.
His conditional release was expected to take place in a matter of hours, after which he would be on probation for 16 months. It comes just six weeks after he was awarded the 2002 Reporters Without Borders - France Foundation prize for his contribution to the fight against censorship.
Pasko first spent a total of 20 months in prison between 1997 and 1999 prior to conviction. He was sentenced to four years imprisonment in 2001, and was then detained again for denouncing the Russian fleet's dumping of radioactive waste in the Sea of Japan.
Reporters Without Borders welcomed a court's decision today to release Grigory Pasko, a journalist with the environmentalist magazine Ekologiya i pravo and former correspondent for the military newspaper Boevaya Vakhta. The court in the far-eastern city of Ussuriisk gave Pasko remission for good conduct, to which all prisoners are entitled on completion of two thirds of their sentence.
His conditional release was expected to take place in a matter of hours, after which he would be on probation for 16 months. It comes just six weeks after he was awarded the 2002 Reporters Without Borders - France Foundation prize for his contribution to the fight against censorship.
Pasko first spent a total of 20 months in prison between 1997 and 1999 prior to conviction. He was sentenced to four years imprisonment in 2001, and was then detained again for denouncing the Russian fleet's dumping of radioactive waste in the Sea of Japan.