MOSCOW. Oct 19 (Interfax) - Ilya Sachkov, the founder of the Group-IB cybersecurity company, who has been arrested on treason charges, has complained to rights defenders that he cannot correspond with his family and friends and is unable to follow a diet that he requires due to his health.
"We visited Ilya Sachkov in Lefortovo [remand center]. It seemed to us that he is somewhat in a state of shock, but, at the same time, he is calm and focused. He complained about being in an information vacuum. He wrote 17 letters, and 25 addressed to him arrived at the detention facility, but the administration seized all of them," a member of Moscow's Public Monitoring Commission and the head of the New People party's human rights committee, Alexander Khuridzhi, told Interfax.
Sachkov is alone in the cell, and the TV set in the cell is not working, Khuridzhi said.
"He has an ailment that requires him to follow a certain diet, but he can't do so now. He has started undergoing a necessary medical examination, but there is a checkup that can be performed only in certain hospitals," he said.
Moscow's Lefortovsky District Court ruled on September 28 to grant the Federal Security Service (FSB)'s motion on taking Sachkov into custody pending trial until November 27.
Sachkov's defense appealed the ruling with the Moscow City Court, which is to hear the appeal on October 21.
Sachkov has been accused of committing high treason by passing information constituting a state secret to a foreign country.
The essence of the case has not been made public, as the criminal case files have been classified.
Group-IB, whose Moscow office has been searched, has declined to comment on the circumstances of the case, but is "confident that its head is not guilty."
Group-IB presents itself on its website as "one of the leading providers of solutions aimed at detection and prevention of cyberattacks, online fraud, and IP protection."