24 years in prison required for journalist accused of “high treason”

Incarcerated since 2020, Ivan Safronov is not about to get out of prison. The Russian Prosecutor’s Office requested, Tuesday, August 30, 24 years of imprisonment against the investigative journalist, specialist in military issues. “The representative of the prosecution asked to find Safronov guilty of high treason and impose a sentence of 24 years in a penal colony with a harsh regime”announced the Moscow City Court, quoted by the state agency Tass, after a hearing behind closed doors.

A recognized defense expert, Safronov, 32, was arrested in July 2020, in the context of growing pressure against the independent press. His affair was denounced by his former colleagues as revenge for his articles discussing failures or embarrassing incidents in the Russian army. Since April, he has been tried behind closed doors because it is a trial for espionage and treason. At the opening of the trial, he proclaimed his innocence and denounced the “extreme cynicism” of Justice.

Ivan Safronov had worked for two Russian national dailies, Vedomosti and Kommersant. Forced to resign from Kommersant in 2019, in May 2020 he became an adviser to the former director of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin. According to the Russian security services (FSB), he is suspected of having “transmitted state secrets on military and technical cooperation, defense and security of Russia” at “an intelligence service of a NATO country”. The Kremlin had for its part assured that his arrest had not “nothing to do with his journalistic activity”.