The Moscow City Court sentenced Ivan Safronov, a former journalist of Kommersant and adviser to the Russian Federal Space Agency's (Roscosmos) ex-head, to 22 years in a maximum-security prison. He was also fined 500 thousand rubles. According to investigators, Safronov has been cooperating with Czech intelligence since 2017. Safronov's support group announced the court's decision.
According to investigators, Safronov has been cooperating with Czech intelligence since 2017. According to the Project Media Outlet, the verdict states that Safronov handed over seven files about "military and technical cooperation of Russia" with Libya, Algeria, Serbia, and the CIS countries and about the presence of Russian military in Syria.
Safronov has been in a detention center on a criminal case since July 2020. In the spring, he wrote a letter and said that the investigation had not allowed any of the 40 defense witnesses to be summoned. According to Safronov, law enforcement agencies could not explain what espionage and treason lied in.
A prosecuting witness had testified that the journalist had received information from open sources and had not worked with foreign intelligence services. After that, the prosecutor's office refused to hear some of its witnesses.
Independent journalists have published a statement demanding the release of Ivan Safronov. According to the correspondents, the FSB has not provided any evidence of Safronov’s guilt. In addition, the prosecution has not proved in any way that the journalist had access to classified information and even more so gave it to any intelligence. There is also no evidence in the case that he was paid by foreign intelligence services. The independent media stated that the indictment was a description of Ivan Safronov's active and high-quality work as a journalist.
