RICHMOND, Va. — A 21-year-old sailor charged with espionage will be tried in a general court-martial at Norfolk Naval Base, Navy officials said Friday.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Ariel J. Weinmann, who has been in custody in Norfolk, Va., since shortly after his arrest in March, faces multiple charges that include deserting from a submarine on which he served, stealing a computer and delivering "classified confidential and secret information" to an unnamed foreign government on three occasions in Bahrain, Austria and Mexico.
Adm. John B. Nathman, commander of the U.S. Fleet Forces Command, ordered the court-martial in a legal document signed Thursday.
Weinmann, from Oregon, was arrested March 26 by customs officials at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
According to testimony at his hearing, the sailor had in his pockets and a backpack $4,000 in sequentially numbered $100 bills, computer storage devices, compact computer discs and a notebook whose contents made customs officials suspicious enough to inspect the computerized records.