TERM CUT IN GHANA SPY CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504650007-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: April 10, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504650007-8
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10 April 1986
Term Cut in Ghana Spy Case
Ex *CIA Employe Scranage Given 2 Years
By Catyle Murphy
' Wash+nttan Po.t staff writer
U.$ District Judge Richard L.
Wks yesterday ordered that the
sentence he imposed in November
on former CIA employe Sharon M.
Scraipge be reduced from five to
two fears, allowing her to be re-
leased after serving 18 months.
"Tbe court doesn't believe either
the ctizens of the United States or
Ms. $cranage are going to profit
from, her remaining warehoused
for" i longer period, Williams said
at a lparing in Alexandria.
Scranage, a native of Virginia's
rural northern Neck, pleaded guilty
to di$closing classified information
to het Ghanaiat boyfriend, Michael
A. Soussoudis. Williams recom-
mended at her sentencing that she
be paroled after 18 months, but a
parole board recently rejected that,
said her attorney, Brian Gettings.
Williams yesterday appeared to
question the different treatment
given Scranage and Soussoudis, to
whom she divulged the identities of
covert CIA informants in Ghana.
Soussoudis pleaded no contest to
espionage charges and, after re-
ceiving a 20-year sentence, was ex-
changed for several Ghanaians in a
spy swap between the United
States and Ghana.
"Soussoudis, who was basically the
culprit in this, wound up getting
nothing ... at the government's rec-
ommendation," Williams said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin
Williams defended Soussoudis' re-
lease as. part of an exchange ap-
proved at the highest levels of the
government. There was "no intent to
extend any leniency to Soussoudis,"
he said.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504650007-8