MOSCOW: A court in Russia`s far east said on Friday it had convicted Robert Shonov, a former US consular employee, of illegally and covertly cooperating with the US government to harm Russia`s national security and had jailed him for nearly five years.

Russia`s FSB security service detained Shonov, a Russiannational,inVladivostokinMay2023andaccused him of taking money to covertly supply US diplomats with information that was potentially harmful to Russia.

The US on Saturday condemned the conviction, calling it `an egregious injustice`. `The allegations against Mr. Shonov are entirely fictitious and without merit, StateDepartment spokespersonMatthewMiller saidin a statement.

A court in the Primorsky region in Russia`s far east confirmed in a statement on Friday that it had found Shonov guilty and had sentenced him to four years and 10 months in a penal colony.

Video of the verdict being read, released by the court, showed Shonov listening inside a courtroom cage as the judge sentenced him.

The FSB published a video in Aug 2023 showing a purported confession by Shonov in which he said two senior US diplomats based in Moscow whom Russia later expelled had asked him to collect information about Russia`s war effort in Ukraine, its annexation of `new territories`, its military mobilisation and the 2024 Russian presidential election.

In the video, Shonov said he was told to gather `negative` information on these topics, to look for signs of popular protest, and to reflect these in his reports. It was not clear whether he was speaking under duress.-Reuters