In the controversial espionage trial against Ivan Safronov, a Moscow court has sentenced the former Russian journalist to 22 years in a prison camp for high treason. The verdict was handed down by the Moscow City Court on Monday, the Russian news agency Interfax reported. The defense therefore announced an objection.
The verdict caused horror among journalists and human rights activists. Prosecutors had requested 24 years in prison after Safronov turned down an offer to plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence of 12 years in prison. The Kremlin had previously announced that the allegations against Safronov were serious. The process was closed to the public.
According to the investigators, the 32-year-old is said to have passed on confidential information about arms deals and operations by Russian armed forces in Africa and the Middle East to foreign secret services. Safronov’s lawyer rejected the allegations at the start of the trial and said the journalist had only used publicly available sources. Safronov was arrested in July 2020 and has been in custody ever since.
The journalist wrote for the daily newspaper for ten years Kommersant about military and space travel, later for Vedomosti. Before his arrest, he worked for the Russian space agency Roskosmos. The EU had called for the charges against Safronov to be dropped and for his release. “The regime’s systematic attack on independent journalism deprives citizens of the right to factual information, including Russia’s war in Ukraine,” said a spokesman for the EU’s foreign service.