A Russian court sentenced physicist Alexander Shiplyuk to 15 years on treason charges on Tuesday in the latest of several cases against experts working on the science underpinning Russia's development of hypersonic missiles.

Shiplyuk, the 57-year-old director of a top Siberian science institute, was arrested in August 2022. Two of his colleagues, Anatoly Maslov and Valery Zvegintsev, were also detained on suspicion of treason. Maslov, 78, was handed a 14-year sentence in May.

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The trio from the Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ITAM) in Novosibirsk are among nearly a dozen scientists researching such technology against whom Russia has brought treason cases in recent years.

Two people familiar with Shiplyuk's case [said] that the ITAM director was suspected of handing over classified material at a scientific conference in China in 2017.

The sources said Shiplyuk maintained his innocence and insisted the information in question wasn't classified and was freely available online.

Several other Russian scientists arrested on treason charges were also accused of betraying secrets to Beijing, according to Russian state media.