OREANDA-NEWS. Former Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces Momcilo Perisic will go to prison for three years for spying for the United States. The verdict was handed down by the Belgrade High Court. The investigation found, that a high-ranking general passed classified information to the diplomat of the US Embassy in Belgrade, John Neibor. The case involved colleagues of the former head of the General Staff Miodrag Sekulic and Vladan Vlajkovic. They were sentenced to 1.5 years in prison. The trial was closed to the press.

Perisic was caught red-handed in 2002 in a restaurant in Belgrade. The trial lasted 18 years. At first, he was suspended due to the deputy mandate of a retired general, then the man was tried for war crimes in The Hague, but in 2013 the court acquitted him. In 2014, the case of espionage in favor of the United States was reopened, according to «Tanjug».

Perisic's lawyers intend to appeal. The general himself said, that he would continue to defend his honor and dignity.

Earlier, former Board member of the Russian company «Inter RAO» Karina Tsurkan was sentenced to 15 years in prison for spying for Moldova, it passed the Moldovan intelligence data on energy supplies from Russia to Ukraine.