Moscow. The Russian justice system this Monday sentenced French researcher <a href="https://www.world-today-news.com/a-french-citizen-has-been-arrested-in-russia-and-is-accused-of-amassing-army-intelligence/" title="A French citizen has been arrested in Russia and is accused of amassing army intelligence”>Laurent Vinatier to three years in prison, detained since June and accused of not having registered as a “foreign agent.”
The court decided to “find Mr. Vinatier guilty” and “sentence him to a three-year prison sentence,” announced judge Natalia Cheprasova, according to an AFP journalist present in the courtroom.
The prosecutor had requested three years and three months in prison against this investigator specialized in the territories of the former Soviet Union.
Russian authorities accused Vinatier of failing to comply with his obligation to register as a “foreign agent” even though he was collecting “information in the field of military activities” that could be “used against the security” of Russia.
After the sentence, France called for his immediate release and assured that “the legislation on ‘foreign agents’ contributes to a systematic violation of fundamental freedoms in Russia, such as freedom of association, freedom of opinion and freedom of expression,” said Christophe Lemoine, spokesperson for the French Foreign Ministry.
In recent years, several Westerners, particularly Americans, have been arrested in Russia and charged with serious crimes, which Washington sees as a strategy to obtain the release of Russians detained abroad.
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