Tens of thousands of letters from all over the world in support of Grigory Pasko

On 23 January 2003 Grigory Pasko walked free from a prison colony in the Russian Far East after serving two-thirds of his four-year sentence on treason charges. Amnesty International’s members around the world welcomed his conditional release but reiterated their call for his conviction to be quashed. The organization adopted Grigory Pasko as a prisoner of conscience from the start as it considers him to have been imprisoned solely for the expression of his non-violent beliefs.

On 13 February 2003 Grigory Pasko and his wife Galina visited Amnesty International’s Resource Centre in Moscow, where they met Amnesty members, talked about their experiences while Grigory was in prison and about their plans for the future.

In 1993 Grigory Pasko, a reporter for a Russian Pacific Fleet newspaper, filmed a Russian navy tanker dumping radioactive waste and ammunition in the Sea of Japan. In this film and in a series of articles he exposed the threat to the environment caused by ships of Russia's decaying Pacific Fleet, including nuclear submarines. He also reported on corruption inside the fleet and passed on public information on these issues to Japanese journalists.

Grigory Pasko was first arrested in 1997 for passing allegedly sensitive information to Japanese media but two years later he was acquitted of all spying charges. After an appeal, a Military Court in the city of Vladivostok gave Grigory Pasko a four-year sentence for treason end espionage in December 2001.

In the Resource Centre Grigory and Galina were speaking about the hardships of everyday life in prison and in the labour colony in Ussuriysk, 120 km from Vladivostok. In the colony Grigory worked as a carpenter, which was difficult for him because of his backache. In the labour camp 1000 people were serving their sentence. Grigory worked in the detachment of 60 persons who were living together in the same big barracks. On Sundays, his day off, Grigory helped other prisoners to write appeals.

Grigory Pasko: “I came here with the haircut given to me in prison. These prisoners who give you haircuts behind bars, they really do their best to get it right. There are three dominating colours in prison: grey, black, and dirty brown. I wanted to tear a picture out of a magazine and hang it on the wall. This is forbidden because you might be hiding something behind the picture. But when I went to prison again, everybody knew me there, and they let me bend the rules slightly. This green or orange spot on the wall, it changed things, it was something pleasant to look at. That was why it was so pleasant to receive postcards from Amnesty International. Many of them were beautiful and bright – the sky, the sea, water, green grass… After I was moved to the labour camp, these postcards kept coming in. Some of them were Christmas cards… So, all the prisoners, all 123 of them, would come over and look at these postcards from Amnesty International. There were biblical scenes there, they asked me what was pictured, and I told them the and the whole story about Christmas.

While Grigory was in prison, his wife Galina was left to look after the children, to deal with everyday chores and to visit Grigory. What was life like for her?

Galina: “There were many difficulties, but I just did not think about them. I had so much to do around the house, and then, there were my kids… and I also had to work because I was the only one who could earn something for all of us. Apart from that, I kept receiving letters from various places where people were asking me to come over and tell them what was going on, how I was coping, what his condition was like. I met quite a few Amnesty International members, some representatives of Reporters without Borders and other organizations, and this was a great help. Not only did I inform them about what was going on, but I also felt that we were not alone. I felt that we were supported by many people around the world. I felt that we were doing the right thing.

When Grigory was in our local pre-trial detention centre, I could see him once a month. After they moved him to the labour camp, I was only allowed to see him every four months. So I only saw him three times while he was in the camp.”

Both Galina and Grigory Pasko agree that the support they received from Amnesty International members and other non-governmental organizations was very important for them to get through all the years of separation and to fight for justice.

Grigory Pasko: “I first learned that Amnesty International was campaigning for me in the summer of 1998. From that time up to the beginning of the court hearings, which began in Autumn 1998, by Winter 1999, I had already received hundreds of letters. Most of them were coming from Amnesty International members. After my first trial was over, I counted these letters. There were 24,000 of them from 89 countries. I remember one which came from Paris, from an Amnesty International member. He was a French architect, and he saw some clips from my film, which showed the army dumping munitions into the Sea of Japan. So this French architect watched it with his 12 year old daughter and decided to write to me. When I got to prison for the second time, I received another letter from France, from a 14 or 15 year old girl. She wished me a Merry Christmas, wrote about how she supported me and sent me a page from a magazine with the map of France. She circled the name of the town where she lives. And the Security Service’s guy who worked there, in the prison, gave me the map but then took it back, saying, “Prisoners are not allowed to see maps.”

Grigory Pasko considers his real home in Moscow the offices of the Glasnost Defence Foundation and his relationship with the Chairman of the foundation, Aleksei Simonov, is that of a son to father. In fact, Aleksei Simonov speaks of Grigory as his son.

Aleksei Simonov: “On the 28 or the 29 of November 1997 I saw in the newspapers that a reporter was arrested in Vladivostok for spying. I realized there was a job for us. The more we learned about the case, the better we understood that we were doing the right thing. It took us quite a long time to mobilise the support of international organizations because these bodies need to check all the facts and decide whether they want to go ahead with it. The fact that Amnesty International quickly recognized Pasko as a prisoner of conscience really helped us. It made the international concern for the case so much bigger. I was very proud to find out that letters of support make up for two volumes of Pasko’s case. We want Grigory to be acquitted in full. I still feel responsible for him, and I will continue to support him until he is cleared of espionage. He has become a member of my family, a close friend, and I will not forget about him.”

Grigory Pasko is currently appealing his sentence to the Supreme Court. He has also lodged a complaint before the International Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg as well. He has a clear message to Amnesty International.

Grigory Pasko: “I do not think that I’ll be cleared of all the things they blame me for because there are many parties involved: the Military Prosecution Office, the Military Court, and the Security Services. They are all involved in this. There are too many people who have made awful mistakes. So if the court decides that I am not guilty, someone will have to be punished.

My only hope is in the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg. My complaint can and will be accepted. There are a few things in my case which we think are illegal, as far as the Russian criminal code is concerned. These mistakes are too grave to be corrected. That is why I think it is so important that Amnesty International continues with its good work.

In February Amnesty International members in Germany held a demonstration in front of the Russian Embassy in Berlin. They insisted that Grigory Pasko’s guilty verdict be quashed and appealed and for a better human rights situation in the Russian Federation.