Posted on 06/14/2003 8:18:15 AM PDT by witnesstothefall
The Moscow Military District Court has ruled that it was Colonel Aleksander Zaporozhsky who gave up Robert Hanssen to the CIA. The court ended up giving the former intelligence officer an even stiffer sentence than the prosecutor had demanded.
On Wednesday the former Colonel of the Foreign Intelligence Service Aleksander Zaporozhsky was found guilty of high treason in the form of revealing state secrets to the USA. Zaporozhsky was sentenced to 18 years in a high security labour camp and stripped of his military rank and all state decorations, though his property will not be confiscated.
During his service, Zaporozhsky was awarded with medals and honours devoted to the 50th and 60th anniversaries of the military forces, for flawless service of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree and a medal ‘For Combat Merit’.
The last part of the case took place on Monday afternoon. Zaporozhny’s last statement to the judges was again a refusal to plead guilty. The court’s press secretary Yevgeniy Komissarov told Gazeta.Ru that the speech took slightly over two hours. Zaporozhsky said that the investigators inclined towards a guilty verdict from the very beginning, that nothing written in the materials of the case had anything to do with reality, and that the prosecution’s arguments were completely unfounded.
52-year-old ex-colonel of the Foreign Intelligence Service Aleksander Zaporozhsky retired into the reserves in 1997. Before that he had been deputy head of the first department of the Counter-Intelligence Directorate of the Foreign Intelligence Service. He was arrested by the FSB officers in Moscow in 2001.
According to the materials of the case collected by the FSB’s Directorate of Investigation, Zaporozhsky worked for Foreign Intelligence for 15 years. During the last years of his career the officer developed a network of Russian agents in the United States. Investigators maintain that he was recruited by the CIA in 1995 and had been betraying his colleagues for five years, transferring information to the CIA operatives while on missions and when staying in Moscow.
The FSB claims it was Zaporozhsky who gave up the FBI officer Robert Hanssen, recruited by the KGB more than 25 years ago.
After his arrest Zaporozhsky was taken to Moscow’s Lefortovo pre-trial detention centre. The case only started this year – in February 2003 the case materials were sent to the Moscow Military District Court and the first hearing took place on February 27.
The entire process was held behind closed doors – no information was disclosed, not even the date of Zaparozhsky’s arrest, any comments from the FSB or the names of the defence lawyers. The damage inflicted on the Russian state was also classified.
On May 26 a representative of the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office asked the court to pass a guilty verdict and that Zaporozhsky should be sentenced to 16 years in prison with the confiscation of property. Russian Criminal Code provides that high treason is punishable by a prison term of 12 to 20 years, served in a high security labour camp. The court ruled that Zaporozhsky’s guilt had been completely proven and sentenced him to 18 years.
The defence attorneys were shocked by the verdict and refused to talk to the press. The head of the court’s press service told Gazeta.Ru that the defence intended to file an appeal in the Military Collegium of the Russian Supreme Court.
The sentencing of Zaporozhsky’s case closed the second large spy process involving the Russian special services in recent months. The other case was FSB Colonel Aleksander Sypachev’s. On November 11, 2002 the court found him guilty of attempted high treason and sentenced him to 8 years in prison. On February 11, 2003 the Supreme Court upheld the verdict.
I don't find this sentence all that astounding, nor do I think it says anything one way or the other about US/Soviet relations. Intelligence officers have sworn loyalty to the agencies they work for, and have to expect severe penalties for double allegiances. Even if they are morally correct in their action, because they think they serve a morally higher cause, the penalty for getting caught is going to be high.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.