US scientist set free after pleading guilty to one count

ALBUQUERQUE, SEPT 14: Nine months after he was branded a threat to national security and put in solitary confinement, Wen Ho Lee was set f...

ALBUQUERQUE, SEPT 14: Nine months after he was branded a threat to national security and put in solitary confinement, Wen Ho Lee was set free with an apology from a judge who said the government’s actions "embarrassed our entire nation".

Supporters cheered as a smiling Lee left the court house alongside his family on Wednesday. He thanked them and said, "I’m very happy to go home with my wife and children." With a chuckle, he added: "The next few days, I’m going fishing."

Lee, 60, pleaded guilty to a single count of mishandling nuclear secrets as the Government all but abandoned its crumbling case against the former Los Alamos scientist.

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Under the terms of the plea bargain, he was sentenced to 278 days – essentially the time served since his arrest last December. Lee had been charged with 59 counts of breaching national security and faced life in prison if convicted. Fifty-eight of those counts were dropped.

"I sincerely apologise to you, Dr Lee, for the unfair manner in which you were held in custody by the executive branch," US District Judge James Parker said.

Parker said the Departments of Justice and Energy "have embarrassed our entire nation and each of us who is a citizen of it."

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