Spying for other countries or groups is in many cases illegal and punishable by law. The following is a list of individuals that have either been imprisoned for spying, or individuals that have been arrested in connection to their spying activities.
| Name | Nationality | Summary | Conviction Date | Penalty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aldrich Ames | American | Convicted of spying for the Soviet Union and Russia | 1994 | Life sentence (without parole) |
| Haji Bashar | Afghan | Worked as an undercover agent on behalf of the U.S. government in Afghanistan, convicted for trying to smuggle more than US$50 million worth of heroin into the United States | April 30, 2009 | Life sentence |
| David Sheldon Boone | American | Sold secret documents to the Soviet Union and is estimated to have received $60,000 from the KGB | February 26, 1999 | 24 Years and 4 Months |
| Marthe Cnockaert | Belgian | Convicted for spying for the United Kingdom and its allies during the First World War | November 1916 | Life sentence (released 2 years later) |
| James Hall III | American | Signals analyst who sold eavesdropping and code secrets to East Germany and the Soviet Union from 1983 to 1988 | July 20, 1989 | 40 year sentence |
| Robert Hanssen | American | Spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence services against the United States from 1979 to 2001 | July 6, 2001 | Life sentence (without parole) |
| Ana Montes | American | Convicted for conspiracy to commit espionage for the government of Cuba | October 2002 | 25-year prison term followed by five years probation |
| Harold James Nicholson | American | twice-convicted spy for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service | June 5, 1997 | 23 years 7 month sentence |
| Stewart Nozette | American | Attempted espionage and against the United States | 2009 | 13 year sentence |
| Ronald Pelton | American | Spied for and sold secret documents to the Soviet Union. Was known to have a photographic memory and as such never passed any physical documents on. | 1983 | Life sentence (set for release in November 2015) |
| Earl Edwin Pitts | American | Accused of spying for the Soviet Union and Russia, and pled guilty to conspiring and attempting to commit espionage | 1997 | 27 year sentence |
| Jonathan Pollard | American | Passed classified information to Israel while working as an American civilian intelligence analyst | 1987 | Life sentence |
| Jovica Stanišić | Serbian | Facing trial at the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for his role in the wars in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, during his service he acted in the role of a CIA agent | Facing trial | Facing trial |
| George Trofimoff | American | Convicted for spying for the Soviet Union during the 1970s and 1980s | September 27, 2001 | Life sentence |
| John Anthony Walker | American | Convicted of spying for the Soviet Union from 1968 to 1985 | 1985 | Life sentence |
See also[]
- List of people convicted of treason
The original article can be found at List of imprisoned spies and the edit history here.