- Title: USA - WIFE OF CIA TURNCOAT SENTENCED TO FIVE YEARS IN PRISON FOR HELPING HIM SPY
- Date: 21st October 1994
- Summary: ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 21, 1994) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV ROSARIO AMES BEING LED DOWN STEPS FROM BACK ENTRANCE OF COURT HOUSE AND DOWN STEPS 0.17 2. SV AMES GETTING INTO WAITING CAR 0.24 3. SV/ZOOM IN AMES IN CAR (2 SHOTS) 0.35 4. SV/ZOOM OUT CAR DRIVING AWAY (2 SHOTS) 0.40 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 5th November 1994 12:00
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- Location: ALEXANDRA, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: Egypt
- Reuters ID: LVA2NTH0GET1WDEDR8LV13EO7OYF
- Story Text: Rosario Ames, wife of CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames, was sentenced to five years and three months in prison on Friday (October 21) for helping him spy for Russia.
The sentence imposed by United States (U.S.) District Judge Claude Hilton was the lowest possible amount under the terms of a plea agreement in which she had admitted her guilt in helping her husband to spy. Prosecutors called it one of the worst espionage cases in U.S. history.
The judge was not obligated to abide by the plea bargain terms, however, and Mrs Ames begged for a more lenient sentence so she could be with her five-year-old son, Paul. "I beg you, your honour, Paul needs me," she said, her voice wavering.
Under a plea bargain agreement made in April, the couple admitted they conspired to commit espionage and to evade taxes.
Aldrich Ames, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer, confessed to spying for Moscow since 1985 for more than 2.5 million U.S. dollars.
Ames, who served as head of a Soviet counter-intelligence desk in the 1980s, agreed to a sentence of life in prison without parole in return for leniency for his wife.
The Colombian-born Mrs. Ames, 41, could have faced a maximum of 15 years in prison, but the plea deal called for her to get from five years and three months to six years as long as Ames cooperated.
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