MOSCOW. Oct 14 (Interfax) - The Moscow City Court has sentenced Yury Soloshenko, 73, former director of the Ukrainian plant Znamya, to six years in a high-security penal colony for espionage for Ukraine, an Interfax correspondent has reported, citing the resolution part of the sentence handed out by Justice Andrei Rasnovsky, which was read on Wednesday.
The Moscow City Court previously found Soloshenko guilty of espionage for Ukraine.
The Moscow City Court began trying the case on its merits behind closed doors as it is labeled 'secret' in early October. A lawyer was appointed to the defendant.
According to earlier reports, Soloshenko was charged with espionage.
According to information possessed by Interfax, Soloshenko is a citizen of Ukraine.
Soloshenko's son Alexander has confirmed his father's arrest to Interfax.
He said his father had been detained during a business trip to Moscow, where Soloshenko went on the issue of equipment sale, in August 2014.
"Everyone knows that he was set up by his acquaintance, with whom he worked and whom he trusted. My father has been in the defense industry for fifty years. He had established contacts and he was contacted on both sides even after he retired. The enterprise he headed survived by Russian contracts as there was not a single contract in the years of independence. That's why neither we, nor the Russians had no secrets, it was one system. And the espionage charge is just absurd. No one clearly understands why my father was detained. The possible reason is that there is a need for 'spies, high-profile cases," Alexander Soloshenko said.
Yury Soloshenko headed the Poltava plant Znamya for some twenty years. He retired in 2010.
The state-run enterprise Production Association Znamya is a leading manufacturer of super high frequency electrovacuum products for running-wave tubes for air defense systems. The reduction in output and sales negatively impacted the solvency of the Poltava plant and the bankruptcy proceedings were instituted in 2001 under a lawsuit filed by the energy supplying company Poltavaoblenergo. In 2002, the Economic Court of the Poltava region began the financial recovery of the enterprise. In 2008-2009, attempts were made to sell it to draw investment. The enterprise became bankrupt in 2012.