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Russian research assistant convicted of spying on European rockets in Germany
The Euronews reported, citing news agencies, a Russian research assistant has been given a one-year suspended sentence for spying in Germany.
The defendant - identified only as Ilnur N. - was found guilty of passing information about European rockets onto Russian intelligence.
He had worked as a research assistant for a science and technology professor at the University of Augsburg from 2018 until he was arrested in June last year.
Prosecutors said the defendant met regularly with a handler for the Russian foreign intelligence service (SVR) and passed on information about aerospace research products, particularly the various development stages of Europe's Ariane space launcher.
He allegedly received a total of €2,500 euros in cash, the court in Munich state heard.
When his trial opened in February, the 30-year-old told the court he was not an agent and claimed he had given publicly accessible information to an employee of the Russian consulate in Munich.
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The defendant also argued that he did not know about the consulate’s links to Russian intelligence.
But the court handed Ilnur N. a one-year suspended sentence and also fined him €500 for "acting as a secret agent."
Judges noted that the information he had passed on had "no visible damage to the Federal Republic of Germany and the research institutes established there".
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The trial comes against a backdrop of high tension between Russia and the West following the invasion of Ukraine.
Source: euronews
