Verdict to Viktor Kalyadin for espionage for US remains in force

On Thursday the Supreme Court of Russia ruled unchanged the verdict of the Moscow region court passed on Russian citizen Viktor Kalyadin on October 31, 2001. Kalyadin was found guilty of high treason in form of espionage for the USA and was sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment.

The Supreme Court dismissed the cassation of Kalyadin's lawyers who had asked to acquit their client or, if the Supreme Court college would not agree to it, to qualify his actions not as "high treason in form of espionage", but as "divulgence of state secret", to reduce his punishment to the period he had already served and to discharge him from custody for medical reasons.

The counsellors claimed that the guilt of the defendant had not been proved during the trial in the Moscow court, while the evidence of the case had been acquired with law violation. In the pre-trial detention center Kalyadin had three heart attacks and after the verdict was pronounced he underwent a cardiac surgery.

Kalyadin has been imprisoned for 43 months. At present he is in hospital, undergoing a treatment after the operation.

After the Supreme Court announced its ruling, Kalyadin's lawyers said they were going to appeal to the Supreme Court presidium.