WASHINGTON: A Singaporean academic who recruited US officials to provide classified political and defense information to China was sentenced to 14 months in prison by a US court Friday.

Working with Chinese intelligence since 2015, Jun Wei Yeo, also called Dickson Yeo, set up a political consultancy in Washington which he used to identify Americans with high-level security clearances that he sought to pay for classified information.

The 39 year old was arrested at an airport in November 2019 and pleaded guilty in July to one count of operating illegally as a foreign agent, which can bring up to 10 years in prison.

But he was given a relatively light sentence and credited for 11 months already spent in prison based on his cooperation with US authorities and also due to the threat of contracting Covid-19 in jail, said Washington federal judge Tanya Chutkan.

The sentence means he could be released and expelled from the United States by January. In a sentencing hearing conducted by teleconference, Yeo appeared to break down as he expressed regrets, and said he had no intention to harm anyone.

He said he had been treated well by US justice authorities. "All I'd like to do is to go home to my family," he said. But then he added that he remains supportive of Beijing. "I am still sympathetic to the Chinese cause," he told the court. "Politically, I do have sympathy. I admit that freely," he said.