Journalist Safronov was returned to the colony after a two-week stage

Ivan Safronov, a Russian journalist convicted of treason, was taken to a penal colony in the Krasnoyarsk region, from where he was taken out more than two weeks ago. During the transfer, lawyers and relatives cannot contact the prisoners, they are not allowed to transfer and correspond.

The former special correspondent of “Kommersant” and “Vedomosti” Safronov was sentenced to 22 years in a penal colony an hour ago. He pleaded not guilty, his colleagues are sure that the FSB prosecuted him for sensitive publications about the military-industrial complex and politics.

He is serving his sentence in correctional colony number 7, half a drive from Krasnoyarsk. On September 12, it became known that he had disappeared from the colony. FSIN never informs where the detainee has been taken before his arrival at the final point of the stage, sometimes this means that a person may disappear for months for lawyers and relatives.

On September 26, he was found in the regional tuberculosis hospital 30 kilometers from the colony. He was kept there despite the fact that he was completely healthy, his defense noted. The journalist was told that he would be transferred to Norilsk. The message of the human rights organization “Pervy Otdel”, defending Safronov, does not say why he was returned to IK-7.

• The practice of sending prisoners without contact with the outside world was criticized by human rights activists. Back in 2017, Amnesty International recommended that the Russian authorities limit the maximum period of deportation. This was not done.