MOSCOW. Feb 12 (Interfax) - The first court of appeals upheld the 13-year sentence for a Russian citizen, Yury Yeshchenko, who spied for the United States.
"The Bryansk regional court ruling of November 17, 2020, was left unchanged," a spokesperson for the appellate court told Interfax on Friday.
According to the Bryansk regional court's documents, the verdict was appealed by the convict himself.
The court sentenced Yeshchenko to 13 years of imprisonment at a high-security facility after finding him guilty of treason.
Yeshchenko, "an employee of a company providing maintenance to radioelectronic systems of Northern Fleet ships in Severomorsk, decided to sell information about new products of the Russian defense industry to the United States," the Federal Security Service (FSB) public relations center told Interfax ealier.
"In 2015-2017, he was purposefully copying secret documentation of Northern Fleet weapon systems. In early 2019, Yeshchenko established contact with the U.S. CIA," the FSB said.
FSB officers detained Yeshchenko in the Bryansk region in July 2019 when he was trying to hand over the classified information to the foreign security service.
Yeshchenko pleaded guilty as charged and told the court he was sorry, the FSB said.