The court extended the arrest of Ivan Safronov for the third time

The Lefortovo court extended the arrest of Ivan Safronov, ex-correspondent of Kommersant and Vedomosti, for the third time. He will remain in the pre-trial detention center for at least another two months, until May 7. The court session was again held behind closed doors.

The change in the measure of restraint, as in previous times, was again not affected by guarantees - about 300 people vouched for Ivan Safronov. Among the signatories are Kommersant editor-in-chief Vladimir Zhelonkin, Vedomosti editor-in-chief Andrey Shmarov, Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov, Project editor-in-chief Roman Badanin, journalists from RBC, Kommersant, Vedomosti, and Ekho Moscow" and other media. The guarantees were also signed by employees of The Bell - Irina Malkova, Petr Mironenko, Lada Shamardina, Daria Korzhova. Members of the Yabloko party also vouched for Safronov: party chairman Nikolai Rybakov and head of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma Maxim Kruglov.

The judge, at the request of the prosecution, closed the meeting due to the presence of state secrets in the case.

After the trial, Safronov's lawyer said that a secret witness had appeared in the case. Also, according to the defender, it became known that the charges are related to the journalistic activities of Safronov. The investigation could be completed by July.

Ivan Safronov has been in a pre-trial detention center for more than six months - he was detained on July 7, 2020 on charges of treason. Neither the public, nor Safronov's defense, nor the defendant himself has received almost any information about the charge he is charged with. The only thing that the security forces reported was that Safronov was allegedly recruited by NATO services in 2012, and in 2017 he completed the task of collecting and transmitting information about Russia's military-technical cooperation with African countries and the activities of the Russian military in the Middle East. Safronov's contact was allegedly a representative of the Czech special services, then the information got to the United States.
In February 2021, Kommersant published the answers of Safronov himself to questions asked about the case. According to him, for six months no one from the investigation team gave him an explanation on the essence of the charges. “(I was told. - The Bell) in 2017 you handed over something that cannot be transferred, but we won’t show it to you because we don’t want to,” the former journalist explained. But Safronov said that in 2017 he helped his friend from the Czech Republic, Martin Larish, with his Internet project “Information Agency for Security Analysis and Prevention,” for which Safronov sometimes wrote analytical materials. All of them consisted of a compilation of information from open sources, and there was no remuneration for them, the journalist emphasized.
Ivan Safronov is the second journalist in Russian history to be accused of treason. Most often, security forces are involved in such cases, but they make up only half of the convicts. Both scientists and fans of "tanks" from military Internet forums, and just random people receive terms for high treason. Which of the convicts actually consciously collaborated with foreign intelligence services, possible to say with certainty. it is almost never

The court extended the arrest of Ivan Safronov for the third time

The judge, at the request of the prosecution, closed the meeting due to the presence of state secrets in the case.

Ivan Safronov has been in a pre-trial detention center for more than six months - he was detained on July 7, 2020 on charges of treason. Neither the public, nor Safronov's defense, nor the defendant himself has received almost any information about the charge he is charged with. The only thing that the security forces reported was that Safronov was allegedly recruited by NATO services in 2012, and in 2017 he completed the task of collecting and transmitting information about Russia's military-technical cooperation with African countries and the activities of the Russian military in the Middle East. Safronov's contact was allegedly a representative of the Czech special services, then the information got to the United States.
In February 2021, Kommersant published the answers of Safronov himself to questions asked about the case. According to him, for six months no one from the investigation team gave him an explanation on the essence of the charges. “(I was told. - The Bell) in 2017 you handed over something that cannot be transferred, but we won’t show it to you because we don’t want to,” the former journalist explained. But Safronov said that in 2017 he helped his friend from the Czech Republic, Martin Larish, with his Internet project “Information Agency for Security Analysis and Prevention,” for which Safronov sometimes wrote analytical materials. All of them consisted of a compilation of information from open sources, and there was no remuneration for them, the journalist emphasized.
Ivan Safronov is the second journalist in Russian history to be accused of treason. Most often, security forces are involved in such cases, but they make up only half of the convicts. Both scientists and fans of "tanks" from military Internet forums, and just random people receive terms for high treason. Which of the convicts actually consciously collaborated with foreign intelligence services, possible to say with certainty. it is almost never