Russian prosecutors are seeking a 14-year prison term for Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko, who is on trial in Moscow on espionage charges in a case viewed by Kyiv and rights activists as politically motivated.
"The prosecution asked 14 years [in prison] for Roman Sushchenko," his lawyer, Mark Feigin wrote on Twitter on May 28, saying in a separate tweet that the Moscow City Court will announce its verdict in the case on June 4.
Russia's TASS news agency quoted a source at Sushchenko's closed-door trial at the Moscow City Court as saying that the prosecutor asked for 14 years of imprisonment for the reporter in a maximum-security correctional facility.
Ukraine reiterated its call for Sushchenko to be freed, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maryana Betsa calling him a “hostage to Russia's aggression."
The maximum sentence prosecutors could seek for the Ukrainian journalist was 20 years. Russian judges do not have to follow prosecutors' guidance on sentencing but rarely impose higher sentences than requested by the prosecution.
Sushchenko, a Paris-based correspondent for the Ukrinform news agency, was detained in Moscow in 2016 on suspicion of collecting classified information.
He pleaded not guilty at the start of his trial in March.
Kyiv and rights activists say Russia has jailed several Ukrainians on trumped-up, politically motivated charges since Moscow seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 and threw its support behind armed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Feigin told the 112 Ukraine TV channel he did not rule out the possibility of Moscow wanting to exchange Sushchenko for the head of RIA Novosti's branch in Ukraine, Kirill Vyshinsky, who is accused by Ukrainian authorities of high treason.
That case has drawn harsh criticism from Moscow and expressions of concern from media watchdogs.
