Walter Biot, a former Italian navy captain, was found guilty of disclosing national secrets, espionage and corruption by an Italian criminal court in Rome on Jan. 19, 2023, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. (U.S. Air Force)
NAPLES, Italy — A former Italian navy captain has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for selling classified NATO documents and other information to a military attache at the Russian Embassy in Rome.
Walter Biot, 58, was found guilty by an Italian criminal court Friday of espionage, corruption and disclosing national secrets, the Italian news agency Ansa reported the same day.
Those secrets included details on the fight against terrorism in Syria, where a U.S. military-led coalition continues operations to defeat the Islamic State group.
Other documents focused on Libya, potential NATO weaknesses and critical naval issues, according to Italian news media reports.
The U.S. has Air Force, Army and Navy bases in Italy, and the highest ranking American naval officers also hold command titles within the NATO alliance.
Prosecutors said the former frigate captain handed a USB stick with more than 180 images from his work computer screen to the Russian attache in a Rome parking lot in late March 2021, according to the Ansa report.
Among the images he gave to the attache were 104 documents marked NATO secret and NATO confidential, and another nine marked confidential, according to the Ansa report.
At least one document was marked top secret, and prosecutors were uncertain whether the Russian had previously received other information from Biot, a married father of four, the news agency reported at the time of Biot’s arrest March 30, 2021.
The verdict came nearly a year after a separate military tribunal sentenced Biot to 30 years in prison in the same case for giving military secrets to the Russian Embassy attache in March 2021 in exchange for about $5,400.
In the earlier trial, a witness testified in a hearing in October 2022 that the strategic analysis section where Biot worked dealt with highly sensitive military operations, including those of NATO, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported at the time of Biot’s March 9, 2023 conviction.
Biot was seen in three undercover videos in mid-March 2021 taking the photos on his cellphone in his Defense Ministry office.
Italy expelled the attache and another Russian diplomat shortly after Biot’s arrest.
Biot is incarcerated at an Italian military prison near Naples and plans to appeal both Friday’s sentence and the military court’s decision, Barrons reported on Friday.
His attorney called the dual prosecution unprecedented, Barrons said.
