This case could be linked to the sudden collapse of the Central Intelligence Agency network in China between 2010 and 2012.
A former agent of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who caused several years ago the spectacular collapse of the network of the US agency in China was sentenced, Friday, November 22, to nineteen years in prison for spying at profit from Beijing.
Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a former US naturalized soldier, joined the CIA in 1994, which he left in 2007 to settle in Hong Kong. According to a statement from the US Justice Department, Chinese intelligence agents approached him three years later to offer him a large sum of money and money. "Take care of him for life in exchange for his collaboration".
FBI agents, the US Federal Police, discovered in 2012 Mr. Lee's bag of notebooks with names, contacts and other information about CIA employees and informants, such as shelter addresses. illegal. But he was arrested only six years later, in January 2018, without the authorities stating why it had taken so long before the former officer could be charged.
"At least a dozen" CIA informants in China killed
"Mr. Lee betrayed his country by greed and put his former colleagues in danger. His sentence today is commensurate with the gravity of his betrayal and his crime, " said Friday Timothy Slater, an FBI leader.
This case could be linked to the sudden collapse of the CIA network in China between 2010 and 2012. New York Times reported in May 2017 that the Chinese had killed during this period "At least a dozen" CIA informants in the country and imprisoned at least six others.
Lee is the third American sentenced this year for spying for Beijing. Another former CIA member, Kevin Mallory, and a former US military intelligence officer, Ron Rockwell Hansen, were sentenced to twenty-ten years in prison in May and September, respectively.
These judgments, commented the Deputy Minister of Justice in charge of National Security, John Demers, "Should send a strong message" to current or past US intelligence agents:
"Be aware of being targeted by the Chinese government and if you betray us, justice will make you pay the price. "
