Cancel the previously made confession of guilt tried to sentenced to 15 years and 8 months of prison for espionage in favor of the Russian Federation Former US Special Force Peter Rafael Dzybinis Debbins. It is reported by Associated Press.
On May 14, the court in American Virginia ruled the ex-special forces sentence. At the same time, during the hearings, Dzybinski Debbins apologized for what he did, and said that he simply became a “victim of Russian intelligence”.
Being in prison, he filed a handwritten petition, asking to withdraw the recognition of his guilt. The reasons for the decision he did not name.
In response, representatives of the prosecutor’s office focused on the fact that, according to Debbins, after the sentence, he no longer has the right to abandon his recognition of guilt. After that, the lawyer of the retired Special Forces David Benovitz reported that his client refuses the requirements to cancel this recognition.
Debbins served in a special division of American land forces known as “green berets”. He was arrested in August 2020. According to investigators, Debbins was recruited in 1996, when he arrived in Chelyabinsk in the educational program.
On the actual service in the ranks of the USA, Debbins has been from 1998 to 2005. In 2003, he was sent to Germany, and later to Azerbaijan. Since 1996 he had access to secret information, and in August 2004 he received permission to access data under the vulture “Top Secret”. Until 2010, Debbins was listed in the reserve.