MOSCOW (AP) — A court in the Russian capital has convicted a Ukrainian journalist of spying and sentenced him to 12 years in prison.

Roman Sushchenko, a correspondent Ukrinform, Ukraine's state news agency, has been in custody since his arrest in October 2016 by Russia's top domestic security agency, the FSB. The FSB claimed that he was a Ukrainian military intelligence officer collecting sensitive information about the Russian armed forces. Sushchenko has rejected the charges.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko denounced Monday's verdict by the Moscow City Court as a show of "unprecedented cynicism."

Harlem Desir, a media freedom representative at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a top security and rights group, deplored the sentence and reiterated his call for Sushchenko's release.