Ivan Safronov, sentenced to 22 years in prison, upheld the sentence

The First Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction upheld the sentence of the adviser to the head of Roskosmos, former journalist Ivan Safronov, who was sentenced to 22 years in a strict regime colony for treason. About it informs bfm.

The verdict handed down by the Moscow City Court on September 5 was left unchanged by the Court of Appeal, and the convict’s appeal was dismissed.

Earlier, “MK” wrote that the case of Safronov has a secret stamp, the trial took place behind closed doors. Safronov was charged with committing two episodes of transferring information constituting a state secret to intelligence representatives of the Czech Republic and Germany.

According to the FSB, in 2012 he met Martin Larish, a former correspondent for the Czech newspaper Lidovе noviny and an expert on the Balkan countries, on a social network. The investigation considers Larish to be a representative of Czech intelligence. According to the indictment, Larisch recruited Safronov, who began collecting information for him “under the guise of journalistic activities.”

According to the investigation, from March 2017 to January 2018, Safronov sent 6 reports to Larish with information about the means of space reconnaissance of the Russian Armed Forces, as well as about the military-technical cooperation of the Russian Federation with the member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Middle East, the Balkans and Africa. He received 87.1 thousand euros and 80.5 thousand rubles for this.

Another episode is related to the sending in 2015 of information about the activities of the Russian army in Syria to political scientist Demuri Voronin, who has German citizenship and acted, according to the FSB, in the interests of German intelligence. From Voronin, Safronov received a transfer in the amount of $248.

The investigation believes that the information transmitted by Safronov could be used by NATO against the security of the Russian Federation.

Safronov denied his guilt and claimed that he was being persecuted for his journalistic activities.

Safronov’s lawyers asked to be acquitted. The state prosecution demanded that he be sent to a strict regime colony for 24 years.