A City Court judge sentenced Sutyagin to 15 years in prison last Wednesday after he was found guilty of state treason in the form of espionage.

Lawyer Anna Stavitskaya said the defense is protesting the replacement for no good reason of the judge and jury after the trial had begun and claiming that Judge Marina Komarova had misdirected jurors to ignore the non-classified nature of the information Sutyagin had passed on, the paper reported.