As it became known to Kommersant, journalist and ex-adviser to the head of Roskosmos Ivan Safronov, who was sentenced to 22 years on charges of treason, appealed his sentence to the Supreme Court of Russia. The corresponding cassation complaint was filed on Tuesday by his lawyers, who had previously visited their client in a colony in the Krasnoyarsk Territory and coordinated the text with him. At the same time, they complained about the actions of the administration of the correctional colony, whose employees did not allow confidential communication with the convict. Lawyers note that recently Ivan’s dream of meeting his relatives came true, whom he had only briefly seen during court hearings since his arrest.
According to Dmitry Katchev, one of Ivan Safronov’s lawyers, on Tuesday, he and his colleague Daniil Nikiforov filed a cassation appeal with the Supreme Court against the sentence of the former special correspondent of Kommersant and Vedomosti, who was sentenced by the Moscow City Court to 22 years in a strict regime colony on charges of treason (Art. 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). “Ivan was acquainted with the text during our visit on May 17-18, fully agreed with it and supported the arguments,” Mr. Katchev explained, stressing that the complaint contains a request to cancel the sentence. In particular, we are talking about the unfairness of the decision, inadmissible evidence and other numerous violations of the norms of the Code of Criminal Procedure “at all stages” of the proceedings.
The defenders emphasized that during the preparation of the complaint and discussion of its essence with Ivan Safronov in IK-7 in the village of Areyskoye near Krasnoyarsk, they had problems that they had not encountered even in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center in Moscow.
The lawyers were offered to meet with their client only in the premises for short visits, and only through glass, and the exchange of documents was allowed only through an employee of the Federal Penitentiary Service. “We pointed out that such a format of communication is contrary to the provisions of the PEC on unhindered and confidential communication between defenders and the principal,” Dmitry Katchev said. In response, according to him, he and his colleague heard that “there are no other premises”, and Ivan is “a convicted dangerous criminal, and glass is necessary for the safety of the lawyers themselves.” As a result, as representatives of the defense explained, “taking into account the specifics of the case”, they did not dare to transfer documents through the warden. And they had to attach the drafts of the complaint to the glass so that Ivan Safronov could study them. He gave his comments and corrections in the same way. “It was not at all possible to discuss the texture of the case, since in order for Ivan to hear us well, we had to practically shout, which we also did not risk doing, since employees of the IK were constantly walking past the door,” Mr. Katchev said.
According to the estimates of the defender and his colleague, the consideration of the complaint itself may begin closer to the fall. As follows from the established practice, if the convict expresses a desire to personally attend the session of the cassation instance, submitting an appropriate application, the court goes forward. However, as a rule, the prisoner attends it virtually via videoconferencing from his colony or another nearby facility of the FSIN, where the appropriate equipment is available.
The defenders emphasized that Ivan Safronov, being in a strict regime colony, did not lose heart. According to them, he recently received books, reads a lot, and now, at the request of other prisoners, he even makes up a queue of people who want to read books after him.
Relations with the special contingent, among which convicts for drug trafficking predominate, according to Messrs. Katchev and Nikiforov, are normal for Ivan Safronov. In IK-7 itself, located 18 km from Krasnoyarsk, as Kommersant said, there is a woodworking plant, as well as a metalworking shop and a sewing shop, but the journalist is not involved in the work. At the same time, his dream came true recently – he was allowed to visit his relatives. He has not been able to communicate properly with them since his arrest in July 2020. During the two and a half years that Ivan Safronov spent in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center, while the investigation and trial were underway, he only saw them briefly during the meeting to extend the measure of restraint and the trial itself, without being able to talk to them – the maximum that I only managed to exchange one or two short phrases.
Recall that the FSB accused Ivan Safronov of two episodes of cooperation with the Czech and German intelligence services out of selfish motives. Mr. Safronov himself, who at the time of his arrest was an adviser to the head of Roskosmos, insisted on his innocence, arguing that he had no access to state secrets and was engaged in exclusively pure journalism. He insisted on the same both in the process in the Moscow City Court, which was held behind closed doors due to the secrecy of the case, and in the court of appeal, which confirmed the guilty verdict. During the process, the defendant, as Kommersant reported, lost most of his team of lawyers. First, one of the leading lawyers, recognized as a foreign agent, Ivan Pavlov, who was forced to go abroad with his colleague Yevgeny Smirnov, fell under the accusations of the ICR about divulging the secrets of the preliminary investigation, and later a lawyer was arrested on charges of spreading fakes about the Russian army – posts on social networks. Dmitry Talantov. The trial of the latter is currently underway in Udmurtia.