Jailed Former Russian Journalist Safronov Unable To Communicate With Lawyer - Defense

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th July, 2021) Former Russian journalist Ivan Safronov, who is accused of passing military secrets to a NATO member state, has been called to the stand to testify in the criminal case launched against his lawyer Ivan Pavlov, and thus would not be able to talk to him as a client, the legal team told Sputnik on Monday.

"Last week, Ivan Safronov was questioned as a witness in a criminal case against Ivan Pavlov. Among the bans imposed on Pavlov by a [Moscow] court was a ban on communicating with witnesses, which means he now cannot be in contact with his client [Safronov]," the lawyer's press service said.

Pavlov, who also defends opposition figure politician Alexey Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, was arrested in late April.

He has been charged with the disclosure of details of a preliminary investigation in Safronov's case with the media without proper authorization. The crime is punishable by fine, forced labor, or arrest for a term of up to three months.

Safronov, an aide to the director of the state space agency Roscosmos at the time, was arrested on July 7, 2020, for leaking classified data to Czech intelligence, which later passed it on to the United States. Another defense lawyer for Safronov, Dmitry Katchev, told Sputnik that his client viewed Pavlov's arrest as an attempt to pressure him.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, for his part, said that Safronov's case was not politically motivated and that the leak was a confirmed fact, whether it was intentional or not.