Ten suspected Russian spies in the United States could enter guilty pleas Thursday and be swiftly deported, possibly as soon as Thursday night, a source with detailed knowledge of the investigation told CNN.
The source said the suspects are expected to plead guilty in federal court in New York to one of the current charges against them — failing to register as a foreign agent — and will likely be sentenced to time already served since they were arrested at the end of June. The development comes amid reports of a possible exchange of the accused Russian spies in the United States for convicted Russian spies in Russia.
A lawyer involved in the plea deal negotiations said that the legal case involving the suspects is expected to be resolved by Thursday afternoon.
The hearing will combine the five suspects arrested in New York with five others picked up out of state.
Wednesday, a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, ordered that suspects Mikhail Semenko, Michael Zottoli and Patricia Mills be moved to New York “promptly,” according to court documents.
Suspects Donald Heathfield and Tracey Lee Ann Foley, who were being held in Boston, Massachusetts, also were to be moved to New York, a federal judge there ruled.
All five were being transferred to New York by the U.S. Marshals Service, a senior law enforcement official said.
Zottoli and Mills have admitted that they are Russian citizens and have been living as a couple under false identities in Virginia, investigators say. Prosecutors said that they made the admissions soon after being arrested and authorities have found evidence to support that information.
Semenko is accused of aiding the plot by allegedly conducting private wireless computer links to communicate with a Russian government official, court documents said.
In all, 10 suspects were arrested in the United States in connection with the alleged spy plot. An 11th suspect was detained in Cyprus and released on bail. His whereabouts are unknown.
Meanwhile, a Russian scientist convicted of spying for U.S. intelligence services could be released in a swap for some of the Russian suspects arrested in the United States, the scientist’s family members said.
The mother and brother of Igor Sutyagin have raised the possibility that he could be exchanged for one of the spy suspects in the United States. They talked to him on Wednesday at a prison in Moscow.
Svetlana Sutyagina confirmed to CNN on Wednesday that her son said he will be released from jail and sent to London, England, by way of Vienna, Austria, on Thursday.
According to Sutyagina, her son was on a list of 11 names submitted by the United States for the exchange of the Russians detained in the United States the alleged spy ring. She said her son remembers just one other name on this list — Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer sentenced for spying.
Igor Sutyagin was convicted in 2004 of passing secret data to members of U.S. intelligence services acting as employees of a British company called Alternative Futures, in exchange for monetary rewards in 1998-1999.
(Source: CNN)
2 Responses
Are the spies getting at least 27 years in jail – like all other “dangerous criminials”………??!!
Based on what the prosecutors (in both cases) claim, neither were really spies. They did research that would have been perfectly legal if they weren’t in communication with a foreign country – and would have been perfectly legal if the foreign country went to the local public library instead of hiring someone to do the work.
None were accused of stealing “top secret” military information. This explains the leniency, and suggests that the intelligence communities (both Russian and Americans) have not only a (predictable) “cold war mentality”, but more surprising, don’t understand the internet (where all sorts of goodies can be found if you know where to look).