The Russian government has maintained that his arrest in 2014 in the Maldives was illegal. It issued a statement on Friday criticising the sentence and said it believed Seleznev's lawyer planned to appeal. Seleznev is the son of Valery Seleznev, a member of the Russian parliament. The sentence was imposed by Judge Richard A. Jones of the Western District of Washington. His conviction followed a decade-long investigation by the US Secret Service, the Department of Justice said in a press release.

Source: Otago Daily Times April 22, 2017 00:43 UTC