Former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) David Petraeus should appear today in a federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina to face charges for supposed leaking of secret information to his biographer and lover.
Petraeus, who run the spying agency from September, 2011 to November, 2012, agreed in March with the Attorney General’s Office to plead guilty of minor crimes as manipulation and non-authorized holding of classified materials.
The Judge in the trial, David Keesler, is not obliged to accept this agreement between the accused and the Attorney General’s Office, but if he agrees, as it usually happens, for these offenses the ex-general would just pay a $40,000-USD fine and spend two years on parole.
Leaders of the American Civil Rights Union (ACRU) suggested that the attorneys keep double standards, because in other similar cases the accused receive much more severe sentences and almost always are sent to prison.
Ben Wizner, ACRU attorney, who represents the former contractor of the National Security Agency Edward Snowden, said the problems is that all the processes of data leaking are not handled the same way, because the smallest sentences are only available for top figures.
Petraeus, who before leading the CIA served as chief of the US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the ranking of general, resigned his post as leader of the spying agency in 2012, after it was revealed that he had a love affair with his biographer, reserve officer Paula Broadwell.
(Prensa Latina)