A defense attorney for Vicky Pelaez, deported from the United States for spying for Russia, said his client was unaware that her husband, known as Juan Lazaro from Uruguay, was Russian.

John Rodriguez told the Voice of America's Russian service that Pelaez "loved him for 30 years. All that she did for the sake of her husband."

Pelaez and nine others arrested as part of the spy scandal in the United States have been deported to Russia in exchange for the release of four Russian prisoners convicted of spying for the United States. The 10 spies pleaded guilty and agreed to be deported to Russia.

Lazaro, also a member of the spy ring, is reportedly a 66-year-old Russian from Siberia called Mikhail Vasenkov.

Rodriguez said he could not say whether Pelaez and Lazaro would remain husband and wife.

The 55-year-old journalist was a columnist for New York-based Spanish-language newspaper El Diario La Prensa.

According to Peruvian media, she admitted she carried money "for spy activities" from Peru to the United States "on the insistence of her husband."

AP quoted Rodriguez as saying that the children of Pelaez - a 17-year-old son with Lazaro and a 38-year-old son from a previous marriage - will not follow their parents to Russia.

Pelaez is believed to be the only one of the 10 spies who pleaded guilty in U.S. court on Thursday not to be born in Russia.

Another lawyer for Pelaez, Carlos Moreno, said his client was expected to spend about a week in Russia before returning to Peru, where she was born and has many relatives. Pelaez has both U.S. and Peruvian citizenship.

Peruvian RPP radio reported that she had decided to return home despite being promised a Moscow apartment, visas and air tickets to Moscow for her children, as well as a $2,000 monthly pension for life.

MOSCOW, July 9 (RIA Novosti)