The Moscow Municipal Court on 18 February convicted Professor Anatolii Babkin of spying for the United States and handed down an eight-year suspended sentence, plus five years\' probation. The court also banned Babkin from conducting any research or working as a professor for three years, banned him from holding any administrative posts at his research center, and stripped him of his academic honors. Babkin\'s lawyers deny that he engaged in espionage and say he merely authorized the transfer of certain scientific papers to an American university under the terms of an approved contract. Babkin, 72, was arrested in May 2000 and accused of handing over classified information about the Shkval high-speed, liquid-fueled, rocket-propelled torpedo to U.S. naval specialist Edmund Pope. Pope was convicted of espionage and given a 20-year prison term but was pardoned by President Putin in December 2000. (RFE/RL)