An investigator probing former Russian journalist Ivan Safronov for passing military secrets to a NATO country believes the inquiry may wrap up in June or July, his lawyer told Sputnik on Tuesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd March, 2021) An investigator probing former Russian journalist Ivan Safronov for passing military secrets to a NATO country believes the inquiry may wrap up in June or July, his lawyer told Sputnik on Tuesday.
A court in Moscow has ordered to keep Safronov, an aid to the director of the state space agency Roscosmos, in custody until May 7. The FSB intelligence agency accuses him of treason.
"An investigator, [Alexander] Chaban, told us that the inquiry may end in June or July of this year," lawyer Ivan Pavlov said after the hearing.
The lawyer said that prosecutors had brought forth a "secret witness," who went by the alias "Lander."
"There should be no secret witnesses in this kind of cases because the defense should be able to verify witness testimony... This is bad practice," Pavlov told Sputnik.
Safronov's defense team says he is accused of having for years shared classified data on Russian arms export to Africa with the Czech intelligence, which passed it on to the US. He denies any wrongdoing.
The Roscosmos space agency insisted that the leak was not related to his advisory role, whereas a Russian presidential spokesman said the case had nothing to do with his prior work as a journalist for Vedomosti and Kommersant dailies.
