Pentagon analyst convicted in 2001 of spying for Cuba released from prison

Former U.S. military intelligence officer and Pentagon analyst Ana Belen Montes, jailed in 2002 for spying for Cuba, has been freed from prison.

Ana Belen Montes, the former U.S. military intelligence officer and Pentagon analyst who received a 25-year sentence in 2002 for spying for Cuba, has been released from prison.

Her release, at the age of 65, was reported on Saturday, January 7, by the Associated Press with reference to Scott Taylor, the representative of the Federal Bureau of Prison.

Prosecutors believed that Montes disclosed the identities of four undercover U.S. agents to Cuban authorities. She was also accused of providing Cuba with top-secret information about U.S. surveillance of Cuban weapons. On the basis of the charges, she faced a death sentence.

In 2002, Montes made a deal with the federal authorities and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage. She was subsequently sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The investigation believed that Montes was recruited by Cuban intelligence from 1979 to 1985. At that time, she was working in the Freedom of Information Section of the U.S. Department of Justice. It was claimed that after being recruited by Cuba, they asked Montes to apply for a job where she had access to information that would be more useful to their intelligence services.

Montes began working for the Defence Intelligence Agency in 1985 and was considered the leading analyst for the Cuban military.

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously demanded that counter-intelligence strictly suppress the actions of foreign intelligence services, as well as identify traitors and spies, as reported by gazeta.ru.

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