Former German reserve officer convicted of spying for Russia

BERLIN (AP) — A former German military reserve officer has been convicted of spying for Russian intelligence for several years and given a suspended sentence of a year and nine months. The Duesseldorf state court found that the defendant was in contact from October 2014 at the latest with several high-ranking employees of the military attache’s office at the Russian Embassy in Berlin who also worked for Russia’s GRU military intelligence service. The court said it took account of several factors in its verdict, including that nearly all the information the 66-year-old passed on was publicly available — but also that his actions spanned more than four years.