Defense appeals sentence on Russian convicted of spying

MOSCOW. July 23 (Interfax) - Russia's Supreme Court will hear on August 17 an appeal against a 15-year sentence passed on April 7, 2004, on a Russian researcher who was convicted of spying for the United States.

The appeal was filed by the defense, who claimed "gross violations of procedural law" occurred during the trial by the Moscow City Court of Igor Sutyagin, head of section at the U.S. and Canada Institute in Moscow, defense lawyer Boris Kuznetsov said on Friday.

"The case was handled by an illegal composition of the jury" as the initial jury was disbanded "illegally," Kuznetsov told Interfax.

On April 5, the jury unanimously declared Sutyagin, who was arrested on October 29, 1999, of selling secrets to two U.S. intelligence agents who allegedly masqueraded as British company executives.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) accused Sutyagin of divulging secret information on the RVV-AE air-to-air missile, on the MiG-29 SMT warplane, on options for the composition of the strategic nuclear forces for the period until 2007, on the implementation of Defense Ministry plans to set up permanent battle readiness units, and on the composition and state of the missile warning system.

Sutyagin said he had had no access to national secrets and that he had used only publicly accessible sources in preparing analytical studies that he passed to foreigners.