MOSCOW, September 26 (Itar-Tass) — The presidium of Russia's Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the verdict for Russian scientist Igor Sutyagin, sentenced to 15 years in jail for high treason.
The court thereby met the presentation by Supreme Court chairman Vyacheslav Lebedev, submitted in connection with the ruling by the European court of human rights which had seen a violation of Sutyagin's rights during the trial and ruled that the scientist was entitled to a compensation.
Igor Sutyagin, senior researcher at a department at the Institute of the United States and Canada, the Russian Academy of Sciences, was found guilty in 2004 on state treason charges and sentenced to 15 years in jail. The investigators and the court ascertained that he had passed sensitive information on Russian nuclear submarines to U.S. secret services.
Sutyagin filed an action with the ECHR, which ruled that he be paid 20,000 euros as compensation for moral damage for "violation of the defendant’s rights to safety and fair trial."
The scientist was again in reports in the summer 2010, after a spy scandal between Moscow and Washington. The scandal broke out as the USA detained ten persons on charges of espionage for Russia. Sutyagin and another three foreign persons convicted in Russia were exchanged for the Russian agents.