Chinese Student Sentenced To Year In Federal Prison For Taking Photos Of Florida Keys Military Base
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KEY WEST (CBSMiami/AP) — Photographs of a restricted Naval base have landed a Chinese student in jail.
20-year-old Zhao Qianli has been sentenced to a year in federal prison after pleading guilty to illegally taking photos of a U.S. military installation in the Florida Keys.
A federal judge imposed the sentence Tuesday on Qianli.
Authorities say he took photos in September of sensitive areas of the Key West Naval Air Station after walking around a fence into a well-marked restricted zone.
Zhao's attorney insisted he was merely a tourist who got lost and wandered onto the base. But investigators say he had only base photos on his cellphone and camera, and none of familiar tourist locations in Key West.
Zhao was in the U.S. to study musicology as part of a summer exchange program from North University of China.
(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)