Russian physicist jailed for spying for China
A Russian physicist convicted of spying for China was sentenced to 14 years in prison today by a Siberian court.
Earlier this month, a jury found Valentin Danilov guilty of passing information to China, and a judge sentenced him to 14 years in a maximum security prison, according to the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies.
Danilov, aged 53, and his lawyers argued that the information he provided was no longer classified and came from open sources.
Danilov was arrested in February 2001 and accused of selling classified information on the impact of space environment on satellites and of misappropriating funds from Krasnoyarsk State Technical University.
He spent 19 months behind bars before being acquitted by a jury last December, but prosecutors appealed the ruling, triggering a second trial.
Danilov was put back in jail earlier this month.
Danilov is among several Russian scholars and journalists prosecuted for alleged espionage by the Federal Security Service, the main KGB successor, known by its Russian acronym FSB.
