MOSCOW. Oct 29 (Interfax) - The Moscow City Court has sentenced blogger Andrei Pyzh to five years in a penitentiary for illegal acquisition of information about restricted sites in the Moscow area that constitutes a state secret.
"The Moscow City Court has pronounced a sentence in the criminal case of 37-year-old resident of the Leningrad region Andrei Pyzh. Given the stance of a public prosecutor from the Moscow Prosecution Service, the court has sentenced Pyzh to five years in a general penitentiary," the Prosecution Service told reporters on Friday.
"Between December 2018 and August 2020, the perpetrator illegally acquired information about specific features of the design and technical systems of certain restricted sites in the Moscow area which constituted a state secret," it said.
Pyzh, a citizen of Russia and Ukraine, was arrested in August 2020 and charged with illegal acquisition of information constituting a state secret, dissemination of such information, or exportation of such information.
According to investigators, Pyzh received secret information from a number of persons during face-to-face meetings. "The defendant transferred the information outside Russia on the Internet and during travels. [...] Pyzh had been secretly gathering information until he was arrested," an investigator said in his motion for extending Pyzh's arrest.
Pyzh pleaded not guilty.