US Indian jailed for 32 years for spying

Jan 28, 2011 |

IANS

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Jan. 25: Weeks after China conducted a flight test of its new J-20 stealth fighter, a US court has sentenced a former Indian American B-2 stealth bomber engineer to 32 years for selling military secrets to China.

Mumbai-born Noshir Gowadia, 66, who has been in custody without bail since his 2005 arrest, showed no emotion as chief US district judge Susan Oki Mollway pronounced the punishment in Honolulu on Monday, according to media reports.

In August, a federal jury had convicted Gowadia of 14 counts, including conspiracy, communicating national defence information to aid a foreign nation, and violating the arms export control act. Prosecutors said Gowadia helped China design a stealth cruise missile to get money to pay the $15,000-a-month mortgage on his multi-million-dollar home overlooking the ocean in Haiku on Maui. They said Gowadia he pocketed at least $110,000 from the sale of military secrets and showing his Chinese contacts how his stealth cruise missile design would be effective against US air-to-air missiles.

Gowadia’s defence attorneys said it’s true the engineer gave China the design for a stealth cruise missile exhaust nozzle but he based his work on unclassified, publicly available information. Gowadia’s son has said his father plans to appeal. The sentencing comes just weeks after China conducted a flight test of its new J-20 stealth fighter during a visit to Beijing by US defence secretary Robert Gates.

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