Cassation

Walter Biot, 20-year sentence for espionage confirmed

The navy frigate captain had already been sentenced to 29 years by the military court

by Patrizia Maciocchi

6 May 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

The double judgement of the military court and the ordinary judge
Prosecution request
Previous conviction

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The Supreme Court confirms the 20-year sentence for the navy frigate captain already sentenced to 29 years by the military court in 2024, in a verdict upheld by the Supreme Court. The legitimacy judges aligned themselves with the prosecution's request on the sentenceforWalter Biot, the frigate captain arrested by the Carabinieri of the Ros on 30 March 2021 on charges ofespionage for passingsecret documents to a Russian official in exchange for five thousand euro.

Last June, the judges of the Rome Court of Assizes of Appeal had reaffirmed the first-degree verdict issued following the investigation by magistrates Gianfederica Dito and Michele Prestipino, on charges of espionage and disclosure of information that was to remain secret for national security and corruption.

The double judgement of the military court and the ordinary judge

In addition to the ordinary public prosecutor's office, the military prosecutor's office also proceeded against Biot, who is detained in Velletri prison, after the judges of Piazza Cavour deemed the 'dual' jurisdiction legitimate given the diversity of the two indictments. And it was precisely the supreme judges who, in November 2024, made final the sentence of 29 years and two months for Biot in the military proceedings.

During his indictment before the judges of the First Criminal Chamber, the Cassation's Advocate General Marco Dall'Olio, calling for the rejection of the appeal, emphasised that 'there is a clear distinction of conduct, jurisdiction has been surgically divided'.

The public prosecutor's request

There is no overlap: with one and the same conduct, Biot infringed distinct legal rights. the fact that the exchange took place and that it concerned documents classified as "NATO confidential" is beyond doubt," pointed out Advocate General Dall'Olio in his brief filed ahead of this morning's hearing, "just as it is equally certain that it took place in favour of a foreign authority and against payment of a sum of money. With regard to the content of the documents it has been said that they are completely undisclosed, regardless of the affixing of the State secret by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers; that their content, then, should not and cannot be known is in some way the in se of the offence we are dealing with".

According to the Attorney General's Office, therefore, 'no nullity, no unusability and above all no violation of the rights of defence, or rather no elision of the minimum guarantees of the proceedings, appears to have occurred. All the witnesses, who were aware of the facts, as well as of the content of the documents given, were cross-examined and were able to report what they were allowed to. No doubt can be had, nor has the defence expressed any uncertainty in this regard, as to the accuracy and truthfulness of what they reported"

The previous conviction

The Court of Cassation, in 2024, had already definitively confirmed Biot's sentence of 29 years and two months' imprisonment, rejecting the former frigate captain's appeal against the decision of the Rome Military Court of Appeal. On that occasion, it also ruled on the compensable damage to the State for the damage to its credibility and international image.

A harm that the defence claimed did not exist given the non-disclosure of the material, the Supreme Court considers it a civil law issue. Therefore, 'the items of damage identified by the Court of Appeal - damage to the credibility of the internal systems of control of classified documents and damage to the image of the Italia State in international relations - are indisputable in the an and should be quantified in the competent fora'.