MOSCOW. Sept 2 (Interfax) - The Lefortovsky District Court of Moscow has granted a motion from investigators to extend by three months the arrest of Ivan Safronov, an advisor to the head of Roscosmos and a journalist who has been charged with high treason, an Interfax correspondent reported.
"Safronov's arrest is prolonged," the court said in its decision.
The court hearing, which was held at the prosecutor's request, was held behind closed doors.
Safronov will remain under arrest until December 7.
His defense lawyers asked the court to decline the motion and release Safronov on bail or place him under house arrest, Ivan Pavlov, a lawyer for the journalist and head of the human rights group Team 29, said after the hearing.
"We disagree with this decision, and we will file an appeal in the near future," Pavlov said.
Safronov, who was an advisor to the head of Roscosmos at the time of his detention, has been charged with high treason. He was detained on July 7, and a court ordered his arrest.
According to his defense lawyers, investigators believe that Safronov, who was allegedly recruited by a Czech special service in 2012, provided its official in 2017 with secret information on the supplies of weapons and the Russian Armed Forces' actions in the countries of Africa and the Middle East. Investigators insist that the end recipient of this secret information was the United States.
Safronov denies any wrongdoing and believes his criminal case is related to his journalistic work.
Before his job at Roscosmos, Safronov worked as a journalist for the Kommersant and Vedomosti newspapers, specializing, in particular, in defense industry issues.