(JNi.media) A US court on October 23 sentenced Mozaffar Khazaee, 61, an Iranian convicted of giving the Islamic Republic classified US military information, to eight years in jail and a $50,000 fine, the Middle East Newsline reported.
Khazaee was convicted of stealing material on the F-22 and F-35 fighter-jets. Also, according to the US Justice Department, “in addition to the materials relating to the JSF Program and the F-22 Raptor, Khazaee also had documents from numerous other US military engine programs, including the V-22 Osprey, the C-130J Hercules and the Global Hawk engine programs.”
Prosecutors said Khazaee, who holds both an American and an Iranian citizenship, worked for three defense contractors. In 2009, Khazaee offered trade secrets and defense technology documents to Iran. He was arrested in January 2014.
“In or about November 2013, while residing in Connecticut, Khazaee attempted to send a large shipping container to Iran,” the Justice Department contended, alleging the shipment included technical manuals, specification sheets, test results, technical drawings and other data on jet engines for the F-22 and F-35. According to the prosecution, all in all, Khazaee was planning to ship to Iran 1,500 documents containing trade secrets and 600 documents pertaining to “highly sensitive defense technology.”
“According to analyses by the US Air Force and victim defense contractors, the technical data that Khazaee stole would have helped Iran ‘leap forward’ 10 years or more in academic and military turbine engine research and development, reducing their investment in such technology by one to two billion dollars and potentially enhancing the development and effectiveness of their weapon systems,” the Justice Department stated.