MOSCOW, June 14. /TASS/. The Moscow City Court has sentenced a former employee of the Moscow Patriarchate’s external relations department, Yevgeny Petrin, to a long prison term for high treason, a TASS correspondent reports from the courtroom.
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"The court ruled Petrin is guilty and is to serve a twelve-year prison term in a tight security penitentiary. Also he was sentenced to a subsequent restriction of freedom for two years," the judge said. Besides, Petrin is to pay a fine of 200,000 rubles.
Petrin said the sentence was clear to him and he agreed with it. The trial was held behind closed doors. The judge is expected to read out only the introduction and the resolutive part of the sentence later today.
Earlier, the state prosecution asked the court to find Petrin guilty and sentence him to 19 years in a tight security jail. The defense insisted on his acquittal.
Petrin was detained on June 5, 2014 and remanded in custody. According to the investigation Petrin, a staff member of the Moscow Patriarchate’s external relations department worked at the Patriarchate’s office in Kiev, where he contacted US intelligence agents. He was not a cleric.