MOSCOW, July 30 - RAPSI. On Monday the Supreme Court upheld the 12-year custodial sentence of former retired Colonel Vladimir Lazar for spying for the United States, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com).

The Supreme Court thus upheld the verdict of the lower court and dismissed Lazar's appeal.

According to the FSB public relations center, in December 2008 former General Staff technical department officer Colonel Lazar, who was in Moscow and acting upon the instructions of U.S. military intelligence agent Alexander Lesment, obtained and delivered to him a large number of geographical maps containing information which constituted a state secret.

The prosecutor's office stated that Lazar purchased over 7,000 electronic topographic maps from a Russian collector, took them to Belarus and delivered them to Lesment via an intermediary. Lesment handed the images over to the Pentagon.

The sentence against Lazar entered into legal force on Monday.