In the most famous treason case in recent years, the Moscow City Court on Monday sentenced Ivan Safronov, a former journalist and adviser to the head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, to 22 years in prison, according to a report. RIA Novosti correspondent reported. from the courtroom.
“[The court rules out] The Judicial Council announced the decision to give Safronov 22 years in prison with a term of 22 years.
Defense has 10 days to appeal the decision, it has not yet entered into force, according to RIA
More background information: Safronov was detained by the Federal Security Service (FSB) in July 2020 after he was accused of collecting state secret data on Russia’s military and technical developments, as well as defense and security, and transferring it to NATO.
As a journalist, Safronov covered military and space topics for the newspapers Vedomosti and Kommersant before moving on to work as an adviser to the former head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin.
Details of the case have not been officially released, as the case is handled behind closed doors due to the gravity of the allegations. Safronov’s lawyers said last week the prosecutor offered the journalist a guilty plea in exchange for a reduced sentence of 12 years in prison, but he refused.
Some of Russia’s remaining independent media outlets, including Meduza, Novaya Gazeta, TVRain, and others, have published a statement in support of Ivan Safronov on Monday demanded the release of the journalist and called for an investigation into the alleged violations of the law in the case.
“It is clear to us that the reason for Ivan’s persecution was not ‘treason’, which is not confirmed by anything, but his journalistic works and documents that he published without regard to the opinions of the Ministry of Defense and the Russian authorities,” the statement said.
