The magistrate of Moscow court district No. 95, Maria Sharko, sentenced Leonid Gutarov, a person involved in the case of surveillance of military correspondent Alexander Kots, to a year in a general regime colony. This was reported by the joint press service of the capital's courts.
Gutarov was found guilty of violating privacy (Part 1 of Article 137 of the Criminal Code). In addition to the main punishment, he was also banned from administering Internet resources for two years. The consideration of the case took place in one meeting, the materials were registered by the court on December 20.
According to the investigation, the 28-year-old accused collected information about the military correspondent Kotz for a fee — in particular, in early November he “secretly carried out surveillance of the home members of the journalist’s family” and “under fraudulent pretext, tried to obtain information about his professional activities from the journalist’s wife.” He passed on the collected data to his accomplice.
The Mash Telegram channel, without specifying sources, wrote that Gutarov received five thousand rubles a day “for work.” On November 8, he tried to get information about the military correspondent from his wife, who did not opened the door for him and called the police. The man was detained that day, and later the court placed him under house arrest.
Initially it was reported that after his arrest Gutarov was interrogated under the article on obstruction of journalistic activity (Part 1 of Article 144 of the Criminal Code), but later it became known that the case was opened under a different article. He admitted guilt.