Chinese' Student' Gets a Year in Prison for Photographing Defense Installations

Zhao Qianli, 21, was sentenced on Tuesday to a year in federal prison for taking photographs of sensitive parts of the Naval Air Station in Key West, Florida. He was an exchange student from the North University of China studying musicology in the United States at the time of his arrest.

Zhao was arrested on September 26 by Key West police for trespassing on the military base. He told the police he was a “dishwasher from New Jersey” who got lost and wandered into the restricted area.

Zhao was originally sentenced to 60 days in jail by a local court, but the federal government filed charges against him in December. The FBI cited witnesses who said he was seen walking the secure fence line of the Joint Inter-agency Task Force South at Naval Air Station Key West on the afternoon of September 26 and then crossing the fence to enter the facility from nearby Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. The task force patrols the waters around Key West for drug smugglers.

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