Russian court jails U.S. citizen Spector for 15 years in espionage case, RIA says

MOSCOW, Dec 24 (Reuters) - A Russian court has sentenced U.S. citizen Eugene Spector to 15 years in jail for espionage, Russia's RIA state news agency reported on Tuesday.

Currently serving a 3-1/2-year sentence in Russia for bribery, Spector, who was born in Russia and then moved to the U.S., was charged last August with espionage.

Before his 2021 arrest, he served as chairman of the board of Medpolymerprom Group, a company specialising in cancer-curing drugs, state media has said.

Spector in his first court case had pleaded guilty to helping bribe an assistant to an ex-Russian deputy prime minister.

(Reporting by Ksenia Orlova. Writing by Gleb Stolyarov
Editing by Andrew Osborn)

((moscow.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com;))