Russian Found Guilty of Treason

A Russian researcher employed by a respected western thinktank was convicted of high treason last night after the jury at a Moscow court ruled he had sold Russian submarine and missile secrets to the CIA.

Igor Sutyagin, a researcher for the Institute of USA and Canada Studies, was found guilty in the latest of a series of trials of scientists and researchers for having contacts with foreigners which the Russian security service, the FSB, deemed suspicious.

Most cases have been tried in closed courtrooms, with Sutyagin believed to be the first espionage suspect to face a jury. Eight of the jurors told the court to show no mercy in sentencing him.

Mr Sutyagin was arrested in October 1999 on charges that he sent detailed reports of Russian nuclear submarine and missile technology to a British company the FSB claimed was a cover for the CIA.

"They accused him of divulging state secrets, when he only used the open press," Boris Kuznetsov, Sutyagin's lawyer, told the Guardian after the verdict. "The jury was manipulated [by the state]. Of course we will appeal."

Sutyagin, who denies knowing the firm was a CIA front, faces a maximum of 20 years in jail.

He was originally tried in 2001 but the case was postponed to allow further investigation. He has been in jail since then.

Critics claim the FSB, emboldened by the rise of its former head, Vladimir Putin, to the presidency and former employees to the top of the Kremlin, has become increasingly paranoid in its protection of Russia's state secrets.

While the military remains precariously under-funded, its state arms factories continue to do roaring business and claim to be at the cutting edge of new technologies.