Russian beauty nabbed over weapon smuggling is a nice Jewish girl: Lawyer

NEW YORK - The young Russian beautician, arrested in Texas for allegedly trying to smuggle US weapons parts to Russia, is “a nice Jewish girl who lives with her sweet Latvian parents” and has no links to terrorism, her lawyer has said.

Anna Fermanova, 24, who lives near Dallas, was apprehended after attempting to take state-of-the-art night-vision scopes and other restricted items to Russia.

The items were confiscated when she attempted to board a flight to Moscow earlier this year. She was arrested when returning to America this month, reports The Telegraph.

The case is being compared to that of Anna Chapman, a suspected Russian spy who was arrested in New York and then returned to Russia under a “spy swap exchange” earlier this month.

However, Fermanova’s lawyer says his client is clean.

“She’s a nice Jewish girl who lives with her sweet Latvian parents,” The New York Daily News quoted Scott Palmer, a Dallas criminal defense attorney, as saying.

He added: “There’s no terrorism link. There’s no espionage.”

The night-vision goggles and scopes cannot be exported without approval from the US State Department, as they are considered to be sophisticated military weapons.

Among the items she was caught with were a Raptor 4X Night Vision Weapons Sight, which she had bought online. A customs agent claimed that the sight’s ID numbers “had been covered with black marker pens”.

Fermanova is under house arrest and has had her passport confiscated. She is expected to attend court in New York later this month where she faces up to 10 years in prison.

Fermanova is said to have told the agents she bought the scopes online for her husband’s hunting buddies in Russia. (ANI)