‘Travesty of justice’ as Russia seeks to jail former reporter
RUSSIAN prosecutors yesterday requested a 24-year sentence for respected former reporter Ivan Safronov, who is accused of treason for allegedly sharing state secrets.
The trial comes with independent media and NGOS facing increasing pressure in Russia, especially since the February start of Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine.
“The prosecutor asked to sentence Ivan to 24 years in a strict regime penal colony,” Mr Safronov’s lawyer Dmitry Katchev told the RIA Novosti news agency after a closed-door hearing.
Yevgeny Smirnov, Mr Safronov’s former lawyer, said on Facebook that the ex-reporter turned down an offer of 12 years in jail in return for a guilty plea.
The 32-year-old worked for business newspapers Kommersant and Vedomosti and was one of Russia’s most respected journalists covering defence.
Moscow-born Mr Safronov reported on the military, politics and Russia’s space programme. He was arrested in July 2020 after having left journalism to serve as an adviser to the head of the state space agency.
The FSB security service has accused Mr Safronov of collecting confidential information about Russian military, defence and security and handing it to the intelligence service of a Nato member country.
Mr Safronov appeared in court yesterday inside a glass cage for defendants, wearing a black T-shirt bearing the Star Wars logo, according to images released by the court.
The verdict in his case will be announced on Sept 5, Russian news agencies said. At the start of his trial in April, Mr Safronov called the case a “complete travesty of justice” and said he was not guilty.
Mr Safronov has said his reporting was based on analysis of open sources and conversations with officials, adding that he had not been told what constituted treason in his case.
Mr Safronov’s case triggered a backlash from independent journalists and – in an unusual move – from several reporters in the Kremlin press pool covering Vladimir Putin, the president.
The Kremlin insisted Mr Safronov’s detention was not related to his previous work as a journalist.
Dmitry Rogozin, the former Roscosmos chief, has said Mr Safronov did not have access to secret information during his time at the space agency.
According to Mr Safronov’s lawyers, it was the first time in nearly two decades that a journalist has been arrested and placed in pre-trial detention on treason charges.