RUSSIAN COURT CONVICTS US SCHOLAR

VORONEZH, Russia -(AP)- A Russian judge sentenced an American Fulbright
scholar on Friday to three years and one month in prison after
convicting him on charges of drug possession, purchase and distribution.

John Tobin, of Ridgefield, Conn., was found innocent of another charge,
persuading others to use narcotics.

What would have been a run-of-the-mill drug case was tinged with an aura
of espionage after the Russian security service accused Tobin, 24, of
having ties with U.S. intelligence -- though he was not charged with
spying.

Before the verdict was read, Tobin delivered his final statement to the
court from the metal cage where defendants are confined during Russian
trials.

"Your Honor, respected participants in the trial, I consider myself not
guilty. I am a student. I came here to study," he said in Russian.

Addressing an initial charge of organizing a drug den, which a
prosecutor threw out earlier this week for lack of evidence, Tobin said
that people would gather in his rented apartment "just to socialize."

"I don't have anything to do with drugs," he said. "I ask you to decide
my case fairly. I never offered or sold anyone drugs."

After a break of several hours, Judge Tatyana Korchagina reconvened the
court to deliver the verdict. The small chamber was filled with Tobin's
teachers and friends from Voronezh State University, where he had been
studying political science on a Fulbright scholarship.

One of his friends, 24-year-old Dmitry Zornikov, leaned toward the cage.

"Jack, hang in there. We love you and we're waiting for you," he said,
eliciting a rare smile from Tobin.

Korchagina then pronounced the sentence of three years and one month in
a medium-security prison.

"In spite of the fact that the defendant has not recognized his guilt,
it is supported by the testimony of witnesses," Korchagina said. "In
sentencing, we have taken into consideration the fact that he committed
a serious crime, and the positive recommendations from his place of
studies, and the fact that he never before faced charges."

The charges carry a sentence of four years, but Korchagina said she cut
it because of the positive, mitigating factors. His sentence is
considered to have begun on Feb. 2, the first day he spent in pretrial
detention.

Tobin showed no reaction as the sentence was read, and refused to answer
reporters' questions before being led from the courtroom.

His lawyer, Maxim Bayev, said that he would appeal the sentence and
demand in particular that the conviction for drug distribution be
overturned because it was not upheld by the evidence. He also said he
would protest the quality of the investigation.

Earlier in the trial, a prosecutor had accused police of overstating the
amount of marijuana allegedly found on Tobin by ten times.

"The position of the prosecutor's office ... is telling," Bayev told
reporters.

Bayev said the security service -- the main successor to the Soviet KGB
- -- had influenced the court by publicly alleging Tobin's connection with
U.S. intelligence. Russian media this week continued to speculate about
Tobin's alleged intelligence interests in Russia.

"The social fuss that has been pumped up by certain law enforcement
officials could not but influence the attitude toward this case and the
way it was investigated," Bayev said.

Tobin was detained Jan. 26 as he left a nightclub in the central Russian
city of Voronezh, and police say he had a matchbox containing marijuana.
More of the drug was uncovered during a search of his apartment, police
said.

After his trial opened this week, prosecutors said the charges of
organizing a drug den and distributing narcotics as a member of an
organized group could not be upheld. But they called for Tobin to be
convicted for drug possession and obtaining drugs with the intent of
distribution.

The accusation of intelligence connections came about a week after the
United States' arrest of FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen on charges of
spying for Russia, which escalated tensions over espionage between
Washington and Moscow.

Tobin, a graduate of Vermont's Middlebury College, studied at a U.S.
military school and at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey,
Calif.