The Moscow City Court sentenced Ivan Safronov, ex-correspondent of Kommersant and Vedomosti, to 22 years in a strict regime colony in a treason case (Article 275 of the Criminal Code). This is reported by a Mediazona correspondent from the courtroom.
Journalism is not a crime. We demand the release of Ivan Safronov
During the debate, the state prosecution requested 24 years in a strict regime colony for Safronov. At the same time, according to lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov, during the break, prosecutor Elvira Zotchik offered the journalist to plead guilty in exchange for a term of 12 years in prison, but he refused.
According to investigators, Safronov was recruited by his Czech friend Martin Larisch, and the journalist, cooperating with Czech intelligence since 2017, passed on “information about Russia’s military-technical cooperation with a Middle Eastern African state.” Before the end of the investigation, another episode was added to Safronov’s accusation — about the transfer for $248secret data to political scientist Demuri Voronin, who is now also arrested on a case of treason.
The journalist was arrested in 2020, he spent more than two years in a pre-trial detention center. During this time, the details of the case were not disclosed, and Safronov was not allowed to meet even with close relatives. At the same time, on August 29, the Proekt publication published the indictment and its analysis. Correspondents found out that the secret information, which Safronov is accused of divulging, is in open sources.
Safronov asked the court to attach the investigation of the «Project» to the case file. “With the help of it, he showed the participants in the process how they wrote the texts imputed to him, from where he got information for them,” said Yevgeny Smirnov. The court denied this to the journalist.
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