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Verdict expected in Russian scientist spy case
A jury verdict in the closed trial of a Russian arms control researcher accused of passing military secrets to the United States was expected Monday after closing arguments by the prosecution and defense. Igor Sutyagin, a scholar at Moscow's respected USA and Canada Institute, has been in jail since his October 1999 arrest on charges he sold information on nuclear submarines and missile warning systems to a British company that investigators claim was a cover for the CIA. Sutyagin faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. He has pleaded innocent, maintaining the analyses he wrote were based on open sources and that he had no reason to believe the British company was an intelligence cover. Sutyagin's case is among a series of high-profile spy cases against Russian researchers. Sutyagin's trial is believed to be the first espionage case in Russia to be decided by a jury. Russia's constitution provides for jury trials, but until recently they existed only on an experimental basis. A court had been expected to deliver a verdict in the case in 2001, but instead instructed prosecutors to continue investigating and left Sutyagin in jail. Russian courts, including the Supreme Court, have repeatedly denied his
request to await trial out of jail. |
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