Posted on 04/11/2005 7:14:57 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A federal judge sentenced a woman to 2 1/2 years in prison Monday for trying to export missile and fighter jet parts to her native China.
In a deal with prosecutors, Xiuwen Liang, 34, pleaded guilty in 2003 to conspiracy to export defense items and attempted unlawful export. Her husband, 35-year-old Jinghua Zhuang, pleaded guilty to the same charges and also was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison in December 2003.
Liang, who has been free on bail, must surrender by May. She will be deported after she completes her sentence.
The couple was arrested after a five-year undercover investigation led by the U.S. Customs Service that also resulted in indictments against two other Southern Californians and an Israeli man.
Prosecutors alleged that Zhuang and Liang tried to ship F-14 Tomcat, Hawk Missile, AIM-9 Missile and TOW Missile parts to China from their business, Maytone International, run out of their Thousand Oaks home.
During Liang's sentencing, U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson refused her request for probation so she could care for the couple's young daughter.
Liang "potentially jeopardized the security of this country," Wilson said.
2 1/2 years? How about 20?
Does anyone else think that selling weapons to such a dictatorship, that we may have to go to war with some day (to prevent its clear aim of invading Taiwan at some time, if Taiwan does not agree to a "friendly" merger), deserves a much harsher sentence?
How did they obtain access to this stuff?
H1B visas, I'm sure!
Back in he 50's they would have gotten life or 25 years hard labor at the minumum.
2 1/2 years is a joke.
Spies were executed in WWII. We live in a touchy-feely world where we don't want to damage anyone's self-esteem.
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