A Russian court has upheld a 12-year prison sentence for high treason against a physicist accused of passing secrets about ultrasound technologies to the Dutch, a Russian legal association said today.

Valery Galubkin, an expert in aerodynamics and aircraft heat exchange at a Moscow institute, was arrested in December 2020 and found guilty in June 2023.

Russia’s Supreme Court ordered a retrial in April, saying it had considered Galubkin’s defense complaint.

The legal team Pervy Otdel (First Division), which specializes in defending people in cases of treason and espionage, announced that investigators found that the scientist had passed secret information about supersonic passenger aircraft to the Dutch.

But that legal team rejected those accusations.

Galubkin is one of several Russian scientists who have been charged with treason in recent years on suspicion of passing sensitive information to foreigners.

Physicist Anatoly Maslov, an expert on hypersonic missiles, was sentenced last month to 14 years in prison.