The Russian Prosecutor’s Office requests three years in prison for a French citizen accused of espionage

MADRID 14 Oct. () –

The Russian Prosecutor’s Office has requested this Monday three years in prison for the Frenchman Laurent Vinatier, arrested at the beginning of June for allegedly collecting information on issues related to the Russian Army in the midst of its invasion of Ukraine as a “foreign agent.”

Prosecutors have defended this request during a court hearing before the Zamoskvoretski court, in Moscow, the country’s capital, according to information collected by the Russian news agency Interfax. The accused, for his part, has pleaded guilty to the charges against him, so the court does not plan to analyze the evidence collected.

Russian legislation indicates the maximum sentence for a Frenchman cannot exceed two-thirds of the maximum duration of the most serious type of sentence. At the same time, the defendant will only be able to appeal the type of sentence and its duration to an appeals court, but not the exact circumstances on which the court issues its verdict.

Vinatier is a 48-year-old consultant who works for the Swiss NGO Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, whose goal, according to its website, is “to help prevent, mitigate and resolve armed conflicts through dialogue.” The French Government demanded after his arrest that he be released and expressed its solidarity with the citizen and “all those arbitrarily detained in Russia.”