A Russian court has sentenced a Ukrainian citizen to 16 years in prison on charges of espionage, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Tuesday.
Andriy Petkevich, 43, was accused of seeking out secret information about small arms development in the Tula region, a hub for Russia’s defense industry, at the instruction of Ukraine's intelligence services.
He was detained in Tula in 2021, before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
FSB footage shared by state-run media showed masked agents raiding an auto repair shop and detaining Petkevich.
The edited two-minute video clip showed officers closely examining a firearm during the searches.
The video also showed a Tula region judge reading out the verdict with Petkevich standing inside a metal-bar defendant’s cage.
The judge found Petkevich guilty of attempting to recruit as spies Russian defense industry employees with access to secrets and handed him a 16-year prison sentence, Interfax cited the FSB as saying.
It did not specify whether Petkevich pleaded guilty or not guilty.
Charges of espionage carry a prison sentence of between 10-20 years.
Petkevich’s sentence has entered into force, the FSB said, meaning the defense team has exhausted the appeals process within Russia’s legal system.
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