FSB investigator Alexander Chaban, who is investigating the case of the adviser to the head of Roskosmos, the former special correspondent of Kommersant and Vedomosti, Ivan Safronov, who is accused of treason, accepted all the petitions of the defense. This was announced by one of Ivan Safronov’s lawyers, Ivan Pavlov (recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation). At the same time, the investigator refused to certify receipt of the documents with his signature.
“After publicity in the media, three hours later, investigator Alexander Chaban accepted all the petitions of Safronov’s lawyers. But he refused to sign acceptance,” Mr. Pavlov said in his Telegram channel.
Earlier, the investigator refused to accept the petition of Ivan Safronov’s defense. The lawyer explained his petition by the fact that the prosecution did not indicate what secret information Ivan Safronov passed on and for whom he collected it. His lawyer stated that the file did not explain from whom Mr. Safronov could receive “illegal income” from secret information allegedly passed on to him. According to the defense, the prosecution is based “on unfounded accusations and expert examinations by the FSB.”
The defense got the opportunity to get acquainted with the materials of Ivan’s case until February 11, but the lawyers were forbidden to make any extracts from the criminal case, which was closed with a secrecy stamp. Lawyers complained that they were allowed to listen to more than 20 volumes of the criminal case and dozens of hours of audio recordings. These restrictions did not allow Mr. Safronov’s lawyers to analyze the data, their correlation with various legal norms, departmental instructions, and the relevant articles of the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Ivan Safronov was arrested on July 7, 2020, on charges of illegally transferring classified data to the Czech intelligence services, allegedly operating under the leadership of the United States. In the final charge, the investigators added an episode related to the indirect transfer of information to Germany. The day before, the court extended the arrest of Ivan Safronov until April 7.
More details – in the material “Kommersant” “Ivan Safronov was not given even three hours.”