American detained for espionage
According to the Interfax agency, Gene Spector pleaded guilty and reached an agreement with the investigators. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
PostedAugust 17, 2023, 9:44 PM
In recent years, several US citizens have been arrested and given heavy sentences in Russia.
AFP
A US citizen has been remanded in custody by a Russian court over a spy case of which few details are known, Russian news agencies said on Thursday, after several convictions of Americans in Russia.
Case closed secret
According to the Interfax agency, this American of Russian origin, Gene Spector, is accused of espionage, has pleaded guilty and concluded an agreement to collaborate with the investigators. He faces up to 20 years in prison. The public agency Ria Novosti specifies that the case has been classified and its details are not known.
In September 2022, Gene Spector had already been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for “corruption” in a case concerning a former assistant to former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkadi Dvorkovitch, who was also sentenced by the courts. A first conviction in 2021 in this corruption case had been overturned on appeal and sent back to court for a new examination in July 2022. According to the TASS agency, Gene Spector was born and raised in Russia before moving to the United States. States whose nationality he obtained. He held the post of chairman of the board of directors of the Russian group of companies Medpolimerprom.
Several US citizens
In recent years, several American citizens have been arrested and sentenced to heavy sentences in Russia, with Washington accusing Moscow of wanting to exchange them for Russians detained in the United States.
In December 2022, American basketball player Brittney Griner, sentenced in Russia on charges of cannabis trafficking, had been released against Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer prisoner in the United States. THE American journalist Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal was arrested in March during a report in Yekaterinburg in the Urals. He is accused of espionage, charges he denies.
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2023-08-17 19:44:27
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