A Russian court on Monday sentenced a former journalist, Ivan Safronov, a specialist in military affairs, to 22 years in prison for “high treason” after detaining him for two years.
Safronov, 32, who has been in prison since 2020, will have to serve his sentence in a “criminal colony with a hard regime”according to the decision of the Moscow court.
The well-known expert on defense, Ivan Safronov, appeared in handcuffs and listened with a smile to the verdict in the glass compartment reserved for defendants in the court where he was tried, according to the France-Presse journalist who recorded the trial. follow the.
His supporters in court chanted “Vania (short for Ivan), we love you,” while others burst into tears.
The lawyers of the former journalist immediately announced that they would appeal against the sentence, which in addition to the prison sentence also includes a fine of 500,000 rubles (8,300 euros).
Ivan Safronov is accused of passing on information to a Russian-German political analyst, also detained in Russia for “high treason”, about Russian military operations in Syria and to elements of the Czech secret services about arms supplies from Moscow to Africa..
The case was denounced by his former colleagues at the Russian newspapers Vedomosti and Kommersant, from which he was fired in 2019 and 2020 respectively, in revenge for his articles about embarrassing incidents in the Russian military.
Source: DN
