Russian journalist Ivan Safronov was sentenced today by the Moscow court to 22 years in prison for “treason”, accused of providing military information to spies in the Czech Republic. An expert on defense issues, Safronov worked for the newspapers Kommersant and Vedomosti. He has always denied the accusations, declaring that he was accused for his activity as a journalist. Judicial sources have told the Russian news agency Tass that, having committed a “serious” crime, the 32-year-old Safronov will have to serve at least 14 years in a regime of strict detention. The sentence is the first of a journalist for treason since 2001 and the most severe in recent years for this type of crime. The prosecution had asked for a sentence of 24 years. At the announcement of the verdict, Safronov’s supporters began shouting: “freedom, freedom”, says the Moscow Times. The defense announced its intention to appeal and stressed that even prosecution witnesses reported that the journalist “did not break the law”. The whole allegation had been classified, but according to the independent investigative media Proekt, which published the indictment, the disclosed “state secrets” would be available online. The allegations are believed to be retaliation for a 2017 article in Kommersant about a sale of military aircraft in Cairo, which sparked a diplomatic case. Ahead of today’s verdict, several Russian media outlets, including Meduza, TV Rain, Novaya Gazeta Europe and the Russian Moscow Times service, issued a statement calling for the journalist’s release. “The reason for the persecution of Ivan Safronov is not his ‘betrayal’, which has not been proven, but his journalistic work”, it is stressed. Arrested on July 7, 2020, Safronov came under severe pressure. “From the first day of his arrest, Ivan was constantly pushed to confess,” one of his lawyers, Yevgeny Smirnov, told the Moscow Times. Last week he would also be offered a 12-year sentence in exchange for an admission of guilt. Both Smirnov and another defense team lawyer, Ivan Pavlov, left Russia last year. A third, Dmitri Talantov, was arrested in June for “discrediting” the military. From 2010 to 2019, Safronov worked as a journalist at the Kommersant business newspaper. Forced to leave due to an article against a senior official, he then worked at Vedomosti and in 2020 he had obtained a position as a communications consultant at Roscosmos, the Russian space agency. Safronov’s father, who bore his name, was also a journalist in Kommersant, specializing in defense matters. In 2007 the man died when he fell out of a window. The official version is that it was “suicide”, but not everyone was convinced, especially as the journalist was working on an investigation into secret Russian arms supplies to Iran and Syria.