FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A former US military intelligence analyst who was convicted of spying for Cuba more than 20 years ago has been released from a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons website shows Ana Belen Montes, 65, was released on Friday.
Montes, an analyst with the US Department of Defense Intelligence Agency, was arrested in September 2001 and charged with spying for Cuba.
In 2002, Montes pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
She admitted to revealing the identities of four undercover US agents to Cuban authorities, and if found guilty, she faced a death sentence.
At the time, federal prosecutors said the four agents whose identities she revealed were unharmed.
U.S. Attorney’s also accused Montes of revealing to Cuba secrets so secret that they could not be revealed publicly. Court records say she provided documents revealing details of U.S. surveillance of Cuban weapons.
Officials at the time stated that Montes was believed to have been recruited by Cuban intelligence while working in the Freedom of Information Section of the Department of Justice between 1979 and 1985, and she was asked to seek employment with an agency that would provide Cuba with a more useful information. .
She began working for the Defense Intelligence Agency in 1985 and was considered a leading analyst for the Cuban military.
