Russian prosecutors ask for 24-year sentence for ex-reporter

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian prosecutors at the trial of a former journalist asked the court Tuesday to hand him a 24-year prison sentence on treason charges. Ivan Safronov. who worked as a journalist for a decade before becoming an adviser to the head of Roscosmos space corporation, has been in custody since his July 2020 arrest in Moscow. He has rejected the charges of passing military secrets to Czech intelligence as “nonsense” and insisted on his innocence. Safronov stated that he had collected all the information from open sources and did nothing illegal. Many Russian journalists and human rights activists have pushed for Safronov’s release, and some have alleged that the authorities may have wanted to take revenge for his reporting.