MOSCOW. Sept 16 (Interfax) - The Russian Supreme Court has dismissed the cassation appeals lodged against the sentences handed down to Gorchakov Fund expert Antonina Zimina and her husband Konstantin Antonets; both were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment on treason counts.
"The Kaliningrad Regional Court judgement of December 24, 2020 and the appeal ruling of the First Appeal Court of General Jurisdiction of April 20, 2021 have been upheld," the court's press service told Interfax.
As reported earlier, the Kaliningrad Regional Court sentenced Zimina to 13 years in a general penitentiary and Antonets to 12 years and six months in a high-security penitentiary, as both were found guilty of high treason.
Zimina, who was an independent expert with the Gorchakov Fund Friends Club, was arrested in the summer of 2018. Antonets was taken into custody a year later. In 2015-2016, he served as a lawyer working in the government of the Kaliningrad region, and shortly before his arrest, he was an employee at a Moscow legal firm. He never had access to state secrets.
According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), Zimina was recruited by the Latvian security services in 2012 when traveling abroad.
Investigators found that Zimina was gathering state secrets and passing them to the Latvian security services.
The investigators said that Zimina involved her husband in cooperation with the Latvian security services in 2015. While working in the Economy Ministry of the Kaliningrad region, he stole state secrets and handed them over to the Latvian security services together with Zimina.
According to the media, these were documents obtained by Antonets in the course of his work for the government of the Kaliningrad region. The media also said that the couple disclosed the identity of an active officer of the regional branch of the FSB, by sending a photo of him from their wedding to the Latvian security services.
The couple pleaded not guilty.