Russian court jails U.S. citizen Spector for 15 years after espionage case, TASS says

A Russian court has sentenced U.S. citizen Eugene Spector to a total of 15 years in jail after convicting him of espionage in a closed-door trial, Russian state news agencies reported on Tuesday.

Already serving a 3-1/2-year sentence in Russia for bribery, Spector, who was born in Russia and then moved to the U.S., was charged last August with espionage.

The details of the espionage case against him have not been made public by state media.

The TASS state news agency said Spector had been given a 13-year-jail sentence for spying which had been added to his existing bribery sentence.

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The presiding judge had decided he should now serve an overall 15-year sentence in a maximum security penal colony as punishment for both cases, TASS said.

Before his 2021 arrest, Spector served as chairman of the board of Medpolymerprom Group, a company specialising in cancer-curing drugs, state media has said.

Spector in his first court case had pleaded guilty to helping bribe an assistant to an ex-Russian deputy prime minister.