WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- A former Pentagon analyst was sentenced on Friday to 12 years and seven months in prison for giving classified information to an Israeli diplomat and two members of a pro-Israel lobbying group.

    Lawrence A. Franklin, 59, who had worked as a top analyst on Iraq and Iran in the Pentagon, was also fined 10,000 U.S. dollars.

    But the former Pentagon analyst would remain free while he continued cooperating with government investigators, and his lawyers were seeking to further reduce the sentence.

    Franklin pleaded guilty in October to three felony counts, including sharing the secret information about an unnamed Middle East country and illegally having classified documents at his home.

    He had faced up to 25 years in prison, but U.S. District Judge T. S. Ellis, based in Alexandria, Virginia, reduced the sentence because of Franklin's cooperation.

    At his hearing in October last year, Franklin said he did not intend to harm the United States and that he had acted out of frustration with US policy in the Middle East when he passed the classified information to the Israeli diplomat and the pro-Israeli American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

    In sentencing Franklin on Friday, Ellis said that the facts of the case led him to believe that Franklin was motivated primarily by a desire to help, not to hurt, the United States.

    The two former AIPAC members, Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, have also been charged and are scheduled to go to trial in April, and Franklin is expected to testify against them. Enditem