PROSECUTOR URGES 4-YEAR PRISON TERM FOR SCHOLAR

VORONEZH, Russia - A prosecutor on Wednesday asked a court to drop drug
trafficking charges against an American Fulbright scholar but urged that he
be sentenced to four years in prison for possession of a small quantity of
marijuana.

Police exaggerated how much marijuana they found and lack enough evidence
for the more serious charges against John Tobin of Ridgefield, Conn.,
prosecutor Marina Galagan said during his trial.

She asked that he be convicted on the lesser charges of drug possession and
obtaining drugs with the intent of distribution.

Tobin was arrested Jan. 26 as he left a nightclub in the city of Voronezh,
and police say he had a matchbox containing marijuana.

The case gained more notoriety when Russian officials described Tobin, 24,
as a spy in training. He wasn't charged with spying, but the drug charges
were expanded from possession to the more serious charges of distribution
by an organized group and running a drug den.

The most serious charge carries 15 years in prison.