German Sentenced for Attempted Treason

A court in Koblenz on Thursday sentenced a German translator to a one-year suspended jail term for attempted treason after trying to sell submarine plans to China. The 43-year-old woman had pleaded guilty to trying to negotiate the sale of secret documents on the electronics systems of Germany's new 212A submarine. The trial was closed to the public due to the confidential nature of the documents involved. According to prosecutors the translator, after arguing with her employers over her fees, contacted the Chinese embassy in Canada in October 2003 to offer to sell the documents, news agency AFP reported. But Canadian agents, who became aware of the proposed transaction, mounted an operation and were able to purchase the documents for 105,000 Canadian dollars (around €60,000 or $85,000) and return them to Germany. The translator, who had lived in the United States since 1983, was arrested in September when she returned to Germany to visit her parents.