ST. PETERSBURG, April 22 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – A resident of St. Petersburg Vladimir Grabovsky was found guilty of divulging state secrets and given a 14-month suspended term, the United press service of St. Petersburg courts told RAPSI on Thursday.

The defendant was also banned from holding security clearance posts for 2 years.

The St. Petersburg City Court heard the case behind closed doors because of its secrecy.

According to Team 29, an association of lawyers and journalists fighting for the rights of Russian citizens to information access and distribution, another defendant in the case is a member of a detachment of the joint search movement Northwest, historian and collector of old topographical maps Anton Kolomitsyn. Grabovsky was an employee of the Federal research and technical centre of geodesics,cartography and spatial data infrastructure and in 2018 he sold Kolomitsyn an electronic copy of the contour mapof the Kola Peninsula of 1960-70. Such maps are classified, the lawyers state.

In February 2020, Kolomitsyn was placed under travel restrictions. However, the man fled to the Netherlands where he is now claiming political asylum. After his escape Kolomitsyn was put on the international wanted list and arrested in absentia.