‘Respected scholar’: Indian-origin US expert Ashley Tellis denies espionage charges

A salient Indian-origin scholar, Ashley Tellis, who was arrested by the FBI successful the United States implicit allegations of retaining classified documents and gathering with Chinese officials, is present denying the charges against him, his lawyers said connected Wednesday, according to AFP.Ashley Tellis, 64, who held elder positions nether erstwhile president George W. Bush and continued arsenic an unpaid advisor to the State Department, was arrested connected Saturday and faces up to 10 years successful prison."Ashley J. Tellis is simply a wide respected student and elder argumentation advisor," his lawyers, Deborah Curtis and John Nassikas, said successful a statement."We volition beryllium vigorously contesting the allegations brought against him, specifically immoderate insinuation of his operating connected behalf of a overseas adversary," they said.A transgression affidavit made nationalist Tuesday stated that Tellis entered the State Department precocious connected September 25 and appeared to people from a concealed papers connected US Air Force techniques.The affidavit besides alleged that Tellis met repeatedly with Chinese officials astatine a edifice successful the Washington suburb of Fairfax, Virginia, and that astatine 1 meal helium appeared to permission a manila envelope.The charges announced by the Justice Department subordinate to improper handling of documents alternatively than the meetings, with an FBI peculiar cause saying a hunt of his location uncovered much than 1,000 pages of top-secret oregon concealed documents.

Tellis has been a elder chap astatine the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a starring Washington deliberation tank, which said Wednesday that helium has been placed connected administrative leave.A naturalized American primitively from India, Tellis helped negociate the Bush administration's civilian atomic practice woody with India, a landmark measurement successful strengthening relations betwixt the world's 2 largest democracies.In caller years, however, Tellis has emerged arsenic a starring contrarian successful Washington connected India, arguing that New Delhi's interests were not aligned with the US connected a scope of issues, including Ukraine.