MOSCOW (Reuters) – Laurent Vinatier, a French researcher accused of breaking Russia’s “foreign agent” laws, pleaded guilty at a trial on Monday and is now in line to receive a lighter sentence, Russian state media said.
State news agency RIA said the Moscow district court where Vinatier is being tried agreed to consider his case under a special regime, which guarantees a lighter sentence.
RIA said the special procedure meant the punishment could not exceed two-thirds of the maximum five-year term for the offence, meaning Vinatier could end up with a sentence of just over three years at most.
Vinatier, 48, was arrested in June by the FSB security service and accused of failing to register as a “foreign agent” in Russia while collecting military information of value to foreign intelligence.
France says Vinatier has been “arbitrarily detained” and has called for his immediate release.
(Reporting by Ksenia Orlova, Writing by Felix Light and Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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