Espionage | featured news

The lawyer for three Americans facing espionage charges in Iran said Sunday that a new trial date of Feb. 6 has been set but that the judge has refused to allow him to meet with his clients to prepare a defense. The trial was to have started on Nov. 6, but authorities said they delayed it because one of the Americans, who was freed on bail, had not been summoned to return to the country to appear in court.

An American woman released from Iran after more than 13 months in custody began her journey back to the United States on Saturday after asking her supporters to "extend your prayers" to her fiance and another American man who remain in Tehran accused of spying.

A former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist and his wife were charged with trying to sell nuclear weapons secrets to a person they believed was a Venezuelan government official, the Justice Department said on Friday.

Sarah E. Shourd, who had been held on espionage charges for more than a year, has left prison, her lawyer said.

The charges against 11 suspects expose a surprising – and mundane – side to modern espionage.

Richard and Cynthia Murphy grew lettuce in a backyard garden, walked their daughters to the school bus each morning, and swapped Christmas cards with neighbors who had moved to Texas.

An ex-Boeing Co (BA.N) engineer, found guilty last year of passing space shuttle secrets to China in America's first conviction under a 1996 espionage law, was sentenced on Monday to 15 years in prison.

Three American hikers who have been detained in Iran after crossing into the country from Iraq have been charged with espionage, according to Iran's State News Agency.

A former engineer for Rockwell International and Boeing was convicted Thursday of economic espionage and acting as an agent of China, authorities said.

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Saturday called charges that a former U.S. State Department official and his wife spied for the Cuban government for nearly 30 years "ridiculous" and described the case as an "espionage comic strip."

Federal prosecutors moved Friday to dismiss espionage-related charges against two former pro-Israel lobbyists accused of disclosing classified defense information, ending a tortuous inside-the-Beltway legal battle rife with national security intrigue.