The Russian journalist Ivan Safronov was sentenced to 22 years of prison for fabricated high treason

A leading Russian journalist told his family that he loved her on Monday when he was sentenced to 22 years of prison for "fabricated" charges.

Ivan Safronov, a respected defense correspondent of the business newspaper, was accused of collecting state military secrets and passing on to Czech spies.

supporters protested in front of the Moscow court when the judgment was pronounced against the innocence of the 32-year-old.

The procedure took place behind closed doors, with information about the evidence of the public prosecutor's office withheld from the public, since the process was alleged treason.

"IVAN SAFRONOV found the commission of two crimes guilty according to the article 'Hochtry' of the Criminal Code," wrote Evgeny Smirnov, his lawyer, on social media.

In a recently published article, Proekt claimed that a Russian investigative organ was that the state secrets, the disclosure of which Mr. Safronov has been accused of, was already open to the public.

The former reporter was imprisoned for high treason in 2020, but his judgment on Monday served as a warning of the dangers of negative reporting on Vladimir Putin's invasion in Ukraine.

"Ivan Safronov was sentenced to a cruel, demonstratively cruel punishment that reflects the current reality in Russia," Pavel Chikov, a human rights lawyer, posted in the Messaging app Telegram.

Before he was arrested, Mr. Safronov was also asked about an article he wrote in which a shop for selling Russian SU 35 fighter aircraft on Egypt was unveiled.

Since his detention, the 32-year-old has long rejected the allegations and declared that his law enforcement is "in direct connection with his journalistic activity".

"I will write to everyone. Write to me. I love you," said Mr. Safronov when he was taken out of the courtroom while his supporters sang "freedom" and applauded the journalist.

his lawyers said they were to make a calling against the punishment, which was two years shorter than the 24 years required by the public prosecutor's office.

Last week, Mr. Safronov was offered a reduced 12-year prison sentence if he was guilty. According to his lawyer, the 32-year-old declined the offer.

"This is a terrifyingly long time," wrote his supporters in a statement.

"We are clear that the reason for the persecution of Ivan Safronov is not 'betrayed' for which there is no evidence, but its journalism."

his process was the first high treason process against a Russian journalist since 2001 when Grigory Pasko, who revealed environmental injuries by the Russian Navy, was sentenced to four years in prison.

The father of Mr. Safronov, who also worked for a commerce in the Defense area, died in 2007 after falling out of a window of his Moscow apartment.

The investigators came to the conclusion that he had killed himself, but the official version of the events was discussed for a long time when he worked on a story about secret Russian weapons sales to Iran and Syria when he died.

Meanwhile, the Novaya Gazeta newspaper announced that it had lost its media license.

Independent media have been silenced by the Russian authorities since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, which forced the employees to flee abroad for fear of persecution.

Dmitry Muratov, the editor -in -chief of the Novaya Gazeta, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, described the decision of the Russian authorities to revoke the license as "political" because he promised to contest it.

The decision was made days after the death of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, who was one of the founders of the newspaper.

Novaya Gazeta stopped publication a month after the war started when the Kremlin was hard against critics.