Russian couple pleads guilty to spying charges and are released from Slovenian prison on time served

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — A Russian couple arrested on spying charges in December 2022 have pleaded guilty and were sentenced in the Slovenian capital to 19 months in prison each and released on time served. The Ljubljana court Wednesday also banned the sleeper agents from returning to Slovenia for a period of five years. The couple was sentenced for espionage and for using fake documents to register their firms. The two, who posed as Argentine citizens, settled in Slovenia in 2017. The husband, who used the name Ludwig Gisch, ran a startup IT company. The wife, who had fake documents in the name of Maria Rosa Mayer Muños, had an online art gallery.