CHISINAU, January 17 (RIA Novosti, Vladimir Novosadyuk) - Former Moldovan defense minister Valery Pasat was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday after being convicted of abuse of office.

A court in the Moldovan capital found Pasat guilty Tuesday of abuses of power leading to serious consequences. The prosecution had demanded an 11-year sentence for Pasat.

Pasat was arrested at Moldova's Chisinau airport on March 11, 2005. The prosecution contended that Pasat had closed a deal in 1997to sell MiG-29 Fulcrum warplanes that caused the state losses totaling $53 million.

Prosecutors had earlier said Pasat had also concluded a deal to sell Uragan salvo-launching systems through a foreign firm at cut-rate prices, resulting in losses to the state of $1.8 million.

Pasat maintained that the case against him was "a political reprisal on the part of Moldovan

President Vladimir Voronin."

The Moldovan Prosecutor General's Office denied the case was politically motivated.

Pasat was also the former head of Moldova's Information and Security Service, and had worked as an adviser to Anatoly Chubais, the chief executive of Russian electricity giant Unified Energy System.