Russia: Former journalist sentenced to 22 years in jail on trumped-up treason fees
Responding to the inside track {that a} Moscow court docket has sentenced Ivan Safronov, a former journalist and marketing consultant to the pinnacle of the nationwide house company, Roskosmos, to 22 years in prison for “prime treason”, Natalia Prilutskay, Amnesty World’s Russia Researcher, mentioned:
“The absurdly harsh sentence meted out to Ivan Safronov symbolizes the perilous fact confronted by means of reporters in Russia lately. It additionally exposes the flaws of the Russian justice machine and the impunity loved by means of state companies, who mechanically fabricate instances with very little proof to give a boost to them.
“Since Ivan Safronov’s arrest in July 2020, his attorneys have got been again and again obstructed by means of the government. The investigation into his case and the trial itself had been marred by means of a lot of procedural violations. It briefly become clear the room of people to any individual following the case that this prosecution had completely not anything to do one’s work with justice.
“Ivan Safronov was once an order only for his journalistic paintings. His simplest ‘crime’ was once accumulating data from institute assets and being aware of and befriending foreigners. The Russian government should he acted as requested quash his conviction and sentence and should be specifically launched.”
Background
On 5 September, Moscow Town Courtroom sentenced Safronov to 22 years in a strict regime penal colony after discovering him accountable of 2 counts of “state treason”.
Safronov, who up to now labored as a reporter for Kommersant and Vedomosti, was once arrested on 7 July 2020. He was once charged with “state treason” for allegedly sharing delicate state data with two overseas nationals when running as journalist.
Attorneys representing Safronov deal with that each one data he gathered was once received from, and stays to be had from, institute assets.
Constitutional scientist Demuri Voronin, one of the crucial two individuals who allegedly won delicate data, admitted in court docket that he had borne false witness towards Safronov.
JournoNews Corp
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