New Trial Ordered for Acquitted Reporter

The Russian Supreme Court ordered a new trial for a military journalist who had been jailed for 20 months before he was acquitted of treason charges. Grigory Pasko was accused of divulging information about the combat readiness of Russia’s Pacific Fleet to a Japanese television station. Pasko claimed the charges were contrived to punish him for reports he filed about the fleet’s nuclear waste-dumping practices. Pasko told the Interfax news agency that the revival of the years-old case showed that “Russia is becoming a torture chamber.”