Ivan Safronov, a former journalist was convicted of treason and handed a 22-year prison sentence. Safronov has been in custody since his July 2020 arrest in Moscow.
Ivan Safronov had worked as a military affairs reporter for leading business daily Kommersant before becoming an adviser to the head of the Russian space corporation Roscosmos.
Safronov was accused of passing military secrets to Czech intelligence and a German national. Ivan Safronov strongly insisted on his innocence, arguing that he collected all the information from open sources as part of his journalistic work and did nothing illegal.
Many Russian journalists and human rights activists have pushed for Safronov’s release, stating that, the authorities may have wanted to take revenge for his latest reporting which had shown the Russian military incidents and shady arms deals.
Safronov rejected the charges leveled against him. Safronov said that he published all the information he gathered from his sources in government agencies and military industries.
Ivan Safronov emphasized that he never had access to any classified documents and emphasized that investigators have failed to produce any witness testimony to back the espionage charges.
Source: Ghanafuo.com
