Moscow court finds arrest of journalist Ivan Safronov legal

The Moscow City Court has refused to void the arrest of former journalist and Roscosmos communications advisor Ivan Safronov, RIA Novosti reports.

The decision was made during a closed hearing.

One of Safronov’s lawyers, Ivan Pavlov, said that during the hearing the investigation showed the materials in the case file containing state secrets for the first time. “[The case files contain] information about the intelligence-gathering activities that were carried out in relation to Ivan,” Pavlov said (as quoted by Interfax).

According to Pavlov, the defense will not be disclosing these details. Daniil Nikiforov, another member of Safronov’s defense team, refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement and was removed from the courtroom, RIA Novosti reports.

Safronov was placed under two months arrest on treason charges on July 7. The defense appealed the decision.

According to Safronov’s lawyers, the case files do not contain any justification for his detention or evidence of his guilt.

According to state investigators, Ivan Safronov passed classified information to Czech intelligence in 2017. Safronov maintains that he isn’t guilty. His defense lawyers are insisting that the case is linked to his past work as a journalist.

Safronov worked as an investigative reporter covering Russia’s military-industrial complex for the country’s top business newspapers, Vedomosti and Kommersant, for nearly a decade. He went to work as a communications advisor to the head of Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos in May 2020.