A Russian court today sentenced French researcher Laurent Vinatier, accused of violating Russia’s “foreign agent” laws, to three years in prison, a Reuters reporter in the courtroom said.

A Russian state prosecutor today asked a court to sentence French investigator Roland Vinatier, who is accused of violating the law on “foreign agents,” to three years and three months in prison, Russian media reported.

Vinatier, a longtime former Soviet Union researcher, was arrested in June by the Federal Security Service (FSB) on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent while gathering military intelligence on behalf of foreign intelligence services.

State news agency TASS reports Vinatieh’s lawyers have asked the court to fine him instead of jail, arguing the prosecutor’s demand is too harsh.

The charges carry up to five years in prison, but state media reported last month that Vinatier had agreed to a lighter sentence for pleading guilty.

France says Vinatier, 48, was arbitrarily detained and has demanded his release. Academic colleagues who know him told Reuters he is a respected scientist doing legitimate research.

French President Emmanuel Macron denied Vinatier was working for the French state and called his arrest part of Moscow’s disinformation campaign.

Vinatier is an employee of the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, a conflict mediation organization based in Switzerland. In a statement after his arrest, the center said its staff works globally and “meets regularly with a wide range of officials, experts and other parties to advance efforts to prevent, mitigate and resolve armed conflicts”.

The FSB had announced in July that Vinatier tried to use his numerous contacts with political scientists, sociologists, economists, military experts and government officials to gather military intelligence “that could be used by foreign intelligence services to undermine the security of of the Russian Federation”.

According to Russian law, persons associated with political activity or gathering military intelligence, while receiving funding or other assistance from abroad, are required to contact the Ministry of Justice and register with the Foreign Agents Register.

Vinatier was not included in the large East-West prisoner swap that took place on 1 August.

Russia claims relations with France have been at a low ebb since French authorities placed Russian messaging app Telegram founder Pavel Durov under formal investigation in August in connection with using the platform to commit crimes such as fraud, money laundering and child pornography. Durov’s lawyer had described the proceedings against him as unreasonable.