A military journalist convicted of treason won a legal victory Wednesday when a wing of Russia’s Supreme Court overturned a Soviet-era decree on state secrets. But prosecutors said it wouldn’t be enough to free Grigory Pasko.
Free speech advocates said the ruling could help reporters and researchers jailed in recent espionage cases by the Federal Security Service. The order had restricted Russians’ contacts with foreigners.
A military court in the Pacific port of Vladivostok in December sentenced Pasko to 4 years in prison for attending a meeting of Russian naval commanders and taking notes. He was stripped of his naval rank of captain and has been jailed in Vladivostok for 22 months. The Supreme Court is to consider his appeal next month.
A Federal Security Service official said the ruling wouldn’t help Pasko because his conviction was based on a 1993 law.
