Pakistan court jails four defence ministry employees for leaking secrets to Russia

Lahore: A special court in Pakistan has sentenced four employees of defence ministry to jail terms of up to 10 years for providing "secret information" to Russia, an official said on Monday.

The judgement was announced by Judge Tahir Abbas Sipra of the Official Secrets Act Court (Islamabad).

"A Special Court under the Official Secrets Act announced its verdict on last Friday in a case involving the leakage of sensitive information to the Russian Embassy Islamabad," the official said.

The court convicted four employees of the defence ministry, while acquitted two others due to lack of evidence.

Safdarur Rehman was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while the other three convicts Tafzeelur Rehman, Muhammad Waqar and Muhammad Tahir were awarded five-year jail terms each.

The court acquitted Mujtaba and Muhammad Ashfaq on the grounds of insufficient evidence.

The official said the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had registered a case against these six defence ministry employees for allegedly passing sensitive information to Russia last year.