Jailed journalist Ivan Safronov accused of passing information about Russian troops in Syria, lawyer says
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The final indictment in the treason case against Ivan Safronov, a former journalist and advisor to the head of Russia’s space agency, has revealed new details about the accusations against him.
According to Safronov’s lawyer Ivan Pavlov, who is currently in exile abroad, his client is charged with passing “information on the activities of the Russian Armed Forces in Syria” to political scientist Demuri Voronin. Allegedly, Safronov was paid $248 for his efforts. In turn, according to investigators, Voronin passed this information to “representatives of Switzerland’s University of Zurich and Germany’s BND [the Federal Intelligence Service].”
Political scientist Demuir Voronin, who holds both Russian and German citizenship, was jailed on treason charges in February 2021. According to Ivan Pavlov, Voronin confessed following his arrest: “He made self-incriminatory statements beneficial to the investigation.”
Media reports connected Voronin’s arrest to Safronov’s case back in February.
On November 1, reports emerged that the criminal investigation into Ivan Safronov’s case had been completed. Safronov, who has been in jail pending trial since July 2020, maintains his innocence.
Update. According to Boris Klin, a member of Moscow’s Public Monitoring Commission, Ivan Safronov has been transferred to a punishment cell for three days. On Tuesday evening, Klin told the state-run news network RT that Safronov said he was placed in a punishment cell because he and his cellmate in the Lefortovo remand prison glued their television’s antenna to a wall in an attempt to fix the signal. Safronov also complained about not being permitted to wear a sleep mask — allegedly, he has been unable to sleep due to bright lights that are left on around the clock, and his eyes have become inflamed. Klin added that because inmates in punishment cells aren’t allowed their own food or clothes, Safronov was made to change into a prisoners’ uniform.
(1) The Safronov Case
On July 7, 2020, federal agents arrested Ivan Safronov on treason charges. According to the FSB, Safronov passed state secrets to Czech intelligence when he was working as a journalist for the business newspaper Kommersant in 2017. Safronov maintains that he isn’t guilty and his defense lawyers are confident that he is being persecuted for his previous journalistic work. While investigators insist that Safronov’s case has nothing to do with his journalism, they did offer him a plea deal in exchange for naming his journalistic sources. Safronov has refused all offered plea bargains.
(2) Ivan Pavlov
The founder of the defunct human rights organization “Team 29,” which specialized in defending suspects accused of treason and espionage. The organization disbanded in July 2021, after the Russian Attorney General’s Office ordered local Internet service providers to start blocking Team 29’s website. In April 2021, Ivan Pavlov was charged with leaking classified trial data from the treason case against one of his clients, former journalist Ivan Safronov. He fled Russia in September, after which authorities reportedly put him on a wanted list.