Legal persecution of nuclear critics in Russia and Belarus continues with at least three notable prosecutions underway.

Grigory Pasko, the Navy journalist working out of Vladivostok who was imprisoned for 20 months, then substantially exonerated at trial before being targeted for prosecution all over again last fall, was scheduled to begin the new trial March 22 in Vladivostok. He is charged again with high treason and revealing state secrets in a case remarkably similar to that of Russian Northern Fleet whistleblower Alexander Nikitin. Working from open sources, both men helped publish damning information about environmental abuses of the Russian nuclear navy.

Pasko had moved for a postponement of the trial, but neither he nor his attorney were informed it was granted until 40 minutes after they arrived in court. June 4 is the new trial date.

In late February, a Russian court in Kaluga began hearing the espionage case against Igor Sutyagin, a researcher of public documents with the U.S.A. and Canada Institute of Moscow who has been accused of spying due to consultations done for an alleged front for U.S. military intelligence. Curiously, the London-based company and all of Sutyagin's contacts have vanished.

The trial of Prof. Y. I. Bandazhevsky on contrived corruption charges began on February 1 in Belarus, but was immediately postponed. As head of a medical institute in Gomel, Bandazhevsky published medical information and advice in the aftermath of the Chernobyl catastrophe that are at odds with the official line alleging little harm done.

Letters of support to the President of Belarus are requested, and may be sent via email from his web site, www.president.gov.by/eng/president/index.htm.

A sample letter prepared by Bandazhevsky's supporters in France outlines his situation is available on request from nukeresister@igc.org or s.m.fernex@wanadoo.fr.

Bandazhevsky's trial is not expected to resume until after the April 26 anniversary of Chernobyl.