LOC02:06
23:06 GMT
LONDON, May 12 (KUNA) -- A UK court has sentenced six Bulgarians to lengthy prison terms for spying for the Kremlin in the UK and across Europe.
During a lengthy trial in London, the Old Bailey court heard the cell was paid handsomely for their services, which included spying on two journalists who had exposed nerve agent attacks on Russian dissidents Alexei Navalny and Sergei Skripal.
The sentencing judge said the group's activities had posed a serious risk to the UK's national security.
Ringleader Orlin Roussev, 47, was jailed for 10 years and eight months. His deputy, Biser Dzhambazov, 44, was sentenced to 10 years and two months.
Dzhambazov's former partner, Katrin Ivanova, 33, was sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison. Three others - Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, Ivan Stoyanov, 33, and Vanya Gaberova, 30 - were jailed to between six and eight years.
Roussev, Dzhambazov and Stoyanov all pleaded guilty to the spying charges, while the other three were convicted at a trial in March.
Prosecutors had told the court they had conducted operations in the UK, Austria, Spain, Germany and Montenegro. They were arrested last March. (end)
nbs.ibi