A courtroom in Moscow has ordered a French citizen accused of accumulating data on navy points in Russia be held in jail pending investigation and trial.
Laurent Vinatier was arrested within the Russian capital on Thursday as tensions have flared between Moscow and Paris following French president Emmanuel Macron’s statements about the potential of deploying the nation’s troops in Ukraine.
The authorities accused Mr Vinatier of failing to register as a “overseas agent” whereas accumulating details about Russia’s “navy and military-technical actions,” which could possibly be used to the detriment of the nation’s safety.
They didn’t present particulars of the accusations past alleging that Mr Vinatier repeatedly travelled to Russia to gather this data. Beneath Russian regulation, it’s a felony offence punishable by as much as 5 years in jail.
The decide ordered Mr Vinatier to be remanded in pre-trial detention till Aug. 5.
Vinatier is an adviser with the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Geneva-based non governmental organisation, which mentioned it was doing “all the things potential to help our colleague Lauren.”
The fees in opposition to Mr Vinatier stem from a just lately adopted regulation that requires anybody who collects data on navy points to register with authorities as a overseas agent.
Human rights activists have criticised the regulation and different laws adopted recently as a part of a multi-pronged Kremlin crackdown on impartial media and political activists supposed to stifle criticism of its actions in Ukraine.
