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Today, the Moscow City Court will pass the sentence in the case of Ivan Safronov, a former journalist for Kommersant and advisor to the head of Roscosmos. The Insider joins its colleagues’ demands for the journalist’s release and an investigation of the officials who violated the procedure while investigating his case.
The prosecution has requested an immense prison term for Safronov in the falsified “high treason” case: 24 years, despite failing to present any plausible evidence of the journalist's guilt. On August 29, Proekt published the indictment in Safronov’s case, which made it obvious that the witnesses were oblivious to the journalist's alleged “crimes” and that the classified information he'd been charged with divulging is public knowledge. At the hearing on August 30, prosecution counsel Elvira Zotchik offered Safronov to plead guilty in exchange for reducing his prison sentence to 12 years. He rejected the deal.
Since his arrest, Safronov has spent two years in custody at the Lefortovo Pretrial Detention Center in Moscow without seeing his family or even as much as speaking to his mother on the phone.
Russian journalists, human rights activists, and EU representatives demand Ivan Safronov’s immediate acquittal and release from custody. The Insider joins its colleagues in demanding the journalist's release.