Grigory Skvortsov, who denies wrongdoing in sharing particulars of the bunkers, will serve his sentence in a maximum-security jail.
A Russian court docket has discovered a photographer responsible of treason and jailed him for 16 years for allegedly sharing details about Soviet-era underground bunkers with an American journalist.
The court docket within the western metropolis of Perm sentenced Grigory Skvortsov on Thursday after a closed-door trial, with out giving extra particulars on the fees. Skvortsov, who was arrested by Russian authorities in 2023, has denied any wrongdoing.
The court docket stated Skvortsov would serve his sentence in a maximum-security corrective jail camp.
It additionally printed {a photograph} of him in a glass courtroom cage wearing black as he listened to the decision being learn out.
In a December 2024 interview with Pervy Otdel, a gaggle of exiled Russian attorneys, Skvortsov stated he had handed on info that was both publicly accessible on-line or available for purchase from the Russian writer of a e-book about Soviet-era underground services to be used within the occasion of a nuclear battle.
Skvortsov didn’t identify the US journalist he was working with within the interview with Pervy Otdel.
Since its invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in 2022, Russia has radically expanded its definition of what constitutes state secrets and techniques and has jailed lecturers, scientists and journalists it deems to have contravened the brand new guidelines.
Skvortsov, who specialises in structure images, has additionally spoken out publicly towards Moscow’s navy offensive on Ukraine. He has alleged that Federal Safety Service (FSB) officers beat him throughout his arrest in November 2023 and stated they tried to pressure him beneath duress to confess guilt to treason.
An internet assist group for Skvortsov stated on Telegram after the decision that “a miracle had not occurred” and the photographer’s solely hope of getting out of jail was to be exchanged as a part of a prisoner swap between Russia and the West.
The Nobel Peace Prize-winning rights organisation Memorial has listed Skvortsov as amongst these subjected to felony prosecution that’s possible “politically motivated and marked by severe authorized violations”.
Earlier this yr, a Russian court docket sentenced 4 journalists to 5 and a half years in jail every after convicting them of “extremism” linked to their alleged work with an organisation based by the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
