Lithuania convicts man for spying for Belarus neighbor

A Lithuanian court has sentenced a former paramedic with the Baltic nation's armed forces to three years in jail for spying for neighboring Belarus.

The Vilnius Regional Court gave the minimum punishment it could to 29-year-old Andrey Osurkov as it took into account the facts that he had no previous convictions and had pleaded guilty.

The court said Osurkov was recruited by the Belarusian intelligence service 10 years ago and started giving them information on Lithuania's military five years later. He was arrested in 2014.

Prosecutors said the Belarus service shares information with its Russian counterpart and the information collected was likely intended for Moscow.

In 2015, another Lithuanian man, Romualdas Lipskis, was given three years and three months for similar offences.