Amateur cartographer Sipachev convicted on charges of handing over maps to the US military intelligence

On May 13, 2010 Gennady Sipachev, an amateur cartographer from Yekaterinburg who was found guilty of of sending classified Russian military maps to the Pentagon via the internet. A Moscow court has sentenced Sipachev to four years in prison.

The maps can be used to make the targeting of US cruise missiles against Russian targets more accurate, Russia's security service officials said. Sipachev was found guilty under Article 275 of Russia's criminal code - "state treason in the form of espionage." The charge normally carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. But the court said that Sipachev had made a guilty plea bargain with prosecutors in exchange for a lighter sentence.

"Sipachev co-operated actively in the detection and investigation and also pointed to criminal activity by other individuals which helped prevent further damage to the security of Russia," said the court's ruling. Russia's security services (FSB) said Sipachev had first raised their suspicions in 2008.

The FSB said it later found that he had been sending top secret Russian military maps to a Pentagon's in-house intelligence service, which acted under the cover of a different organisation.

Source: