24 years in prison for a journalist accused of “high treason”.
Ivan Safronov, who has been imprisoned since July 2020, is accused of passing on state secrets to the intelligence services of one of the NATO countries.
Extremely severe purchase orders, in the midst of the conflict in Ukraine: Russian prosecutors on Tuesday, August 30, demanded a 24-year prison sentence against journalist Ivan Safronov, who specializes in military matters, Accused of high treason He has been imprisoned since 2020.
The trial comes as the Kremlin doubles down on its calls to support the armed forces fighting in Ukraine. In recent months, hundreds of Russians have been prosecuted for criticizing the attack and accused of committingDiscredit» forces. Recognized defense expert Ivan Safronov, 32, was arrested in July 2020, in the context of an increased repression of the independent press, the pace of which has accelerated since the attack in Ukraine.
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The requisitions, announced on Tuesday, are still particularly tough, even in this type of trial. “The representative of the prosecutor demanded that Safronov be convicted of high treason and the imposition of a sentence of 24 years imprisonment in a criminal colony with a harsh regime.said the Moscow City Court, citing the TASS news agency. Since April, Ivan Safronov has been tried behind closed doors as he stands trial on charges of espionage and treason. A verdict is expected on September 5. According to the court, the ruling statement will be open to the press.
spy fee
On Tuesday, Ivan Safronov appeared in the glass cage for the accused wearing a T-shirt with the logo of science fiction films “star WarsAnd the Iroquois emblem as a haircut, according to photos published by Russian Justice. On Facebook, his lawyer, Evgeny Smirnov, noted that before the hearing, prosecutors had proposed reducing his claim to 12 years in prison, if Ivan Safronov pleaded guilty, which he refuses to do. At the beginning of March, the Prosecutor General’s Office confirmed that Ivan Safronov was a suspect.To transmit information to representatives of foreign intelligence services, knowing that it can be used by NATO member states against the security of Russia.»
In particular, the prosecution alleges that it passed on to a German political expert information about Russian military operations in Syria, and to Czech intelligence operatives about Moscow’s arms shipments to Africa. Ivan Safronov vehemently rejects these accusations. The son of a journalist who also specializes in the military sector, he previously worked for two Russian daily newspapers, Vedomosti and Kommersant.
‘Extreme irony’
He was forced to resign from Kommersant in 2019, and in May 2020 became an advisor to the former director of the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin. His former colleagues denounced the affair as revenge for his articles about failures or embarrassing incidents in the Russian army. The Kremlin confirmed that his arrest was not related to his professional activity.
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At the beginning of the trial in early April, Ivan Safronov again claimed his innocence and denounced “sarcasmRussian justice. “I have already received from open sources information related to my field of work – the military pressIvan Safronov wrote in a letter. But “Produced journalistic content that did not contain a single word or number that was received under the seal of confidentiality or illegally“.
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