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MOSCOW: A Russian court on Wednesday announced an appeal hearing this month for French researcher Laurent Vinatier, who has been jailed for three years for failing to register as a foreign agent.
Vinatier is one of several Westerners arrested in Russia since its 2022 Ukraine offensive and France has demanded his release.
Moscow city court announced that Vinatier’s appeal will be held February 24 at 0815 GMT.
Vinatier, who works for a Swiss conflict mediation NGO, was found guilty of breaching Russia’s law on “foreign agents”, in a case condemned by France.
Vinatier was charged over a requirement introduced in 2022 that people who gather information on Russia’s military and arms that could harm the country’s national security, must apply for the status of “foreign agents”. He was not charged with espionage.
He admitted guilt at his trial and said he was unaware that he should have registered as a “foreign agent”. The charge has been almost exclusively used against domestic critics of the Kremlin.
The 48-year-old works for Geneva-based centre for humanitarian dialogue, and is a veteran researcher on Russia and other post-soviet countries.
According to sources interviewed by AFP, the Frenchman had been working for years on tensions between Russia and Ukraine, before Russia launched its full-scale offensive in February 2022.
He was arrested in Moscow in June and filed an appeal after being jailed by a Moscow district court in October.
His lawyers had asked for him to be punished by a fine and condemned the “harsh” sentence.
The case comes at a low point in relations between Russia and France, which has strongly supported Ukraine and accused Russia of campaigning to destabilise the country and spread disinformation.
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