Ex-reporter jailed for 22 years in Russia on treason charges
MOSCOW (AP) — A former journalist was convicted of treason and handed a 22-year prison sentence on Monday after a trial that has been widely seen as politically motivated and marked a new step in a sweeping crackdown on the media and Kremlin critics.
The sentence handed to Ivan Safronov, who worked as a military affairs reporter for leading business daily Kommersant before becoming an adviser to the head of the Russian space corporation Roscosmos, has been harshly criticized by his colleagues as utterly unfounded.
A few friends and co-workers of Safronov who attended Monday's hearing at the Moscow City Court chanted “Freedom!” and clapped after the verdict was read.
“I love you all!” Safronov told those who came to support him.
Safronov was accused of passing military secrets to Czech intelligence and a German national. He 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.
In his final statement at the trial last week, Safronov rejected the charges as “absurd,” noting that he published all the information he gathered from his sources in government agencies and military industries.
He 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.
Safronov described the long sentence requested by prosecutors as “monstrous,” saying that it would stain the country's image by showing that a journalist is sentenced simply for doing his job.
Many Russian journalists and human rights activists have pushed for Safronov’s release, maintaining that the authorities may have wanted to take revenge for his reporting that exposed Russian military incidents and shady...
