MOSCOW. June 20 (Interfax) - The prosecutor in a treason trial against a physicist from the Zhukovsky Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute has requested a 12-year prison sentence, the defense team said.
"The state prosecutor has requested 12 years' imprisonment at a high-security facility for the scientist Valery Golubkin," the Pervy Otdel (First Department) human rights project which is defending Golubkin said on Tuesday.
The case is being heard by the Moscow City Court behind closed doors due to the classified nature of the case files.
Golubkin was detained and arrested in April 2021. He was charged with high treason.
Golubkin's defense team said that in accordance with the case files, in November 2018, at the direction of his supervisor, the scientist submitted progress reports to Johan Steelant of the European ESA-ESTEC, the coordinator of the Hexafly-INT project in which TsAGI participated.
Golubkin, a specialist in aerodynamics and heat exchange of aircraft, worked at TsAGI before his detention as a leading researcher in Department No. 11 of Research Branch 2. The head of this department, Anatoly Gubanov, was arrested for high treason in December 2020.
According to official information, Hexafly-INT (High-Speed Experimental FLY Vehicles - INTernational), is a project of the 7th European framework program studying the concept for a high-speed passenger plane using hydrogen fuel. The project was carried out between 2014 and 2019.
The project involved European, Russian, and Australian centers and was coordinated by the European Space Agency based in France.
The European Space Agency's European Space Research and Technology Center (ESA-ESTEC) is based in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.