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LEAD: MSDF officer avoids prison over intelligence data leak incident+
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) YOKOHAMA, Oct. 28_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: ADDING DETAILS)
The Yokohama District Court found a Maritime Self-Defense Force officer guilty over the handling of intelligence linked to the U.S.-developed Aegis defense system within the force in 2002.
But Lt. Cmdr. Sumitaka Matsuuchi, 35, avoided going to jail as his prison term of two years and six months has been suspended for four years, according to the ruling.
At issue was whether Matsuuchi's passing the intelligence to his MSDF colleague in 2002 constituted illegal leakage of intelligence, banned under the 1954 Law on the Protection of Secrets for the Japan-U.S. Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement.
The trial was closely watched as the first Japanese court judgment on a case to which prosecutors applied the law.
The prosecutors demanded that Matsuuchi receive three years in prison, claiming he copied the data on the high-tech radar system for Aegis destroyers onto his computer in May 2002 and passed a CD containing the data to the 44-year-old colleague, also a lieutenant commander, that August.
Matsuuchi was in the precursor to a unit of the Fleet Research and Development Command in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, when the alleged mishandling of the information took place.
The prosecutors and Matsuuchi's defense team clashed over whether Matsuuchi was authorized to handle the Aegis intelligence.
The prosecutors said Matsuuchi's handling of the Aegis data should be construed as the illegal leakage of defense secrets as he was authorized to handle the Aegis intelligence as part of his duties but the colleague was not.
Matsuuchi's defense team pleaded not guilty, saying the defendant did not handle the Aegis intelligence as part of his duties thus his taking the information and giving it to his colleague did not constitute the illegal intelligence leakage.
The statute of limitations on the leakage of defense secrets lasts seven years if suspects handle them as part of their duties, while the limitations run only five years for suspects who do not do so.
In March, the Defense Ministry said a total of 38 people were found involved in the leakage of data on the Aegis system and that two of them were dismissed.
Copyright ? 2008 Kyodo News International, Inc.
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