Great-grandson of telephone inventor Graham Bell gets life for spying for Cuba

The 73-year-old great-grandson of Alexander Graham Bell, who is credited with the invention of the first practical telephone, Kendall Myers, has been sentenced to life in prison for spying for Cuba.

According to Scotman.com, US District Judge Reggie Walton said that Myers and his wife Gwendolyn betrayed the United States for three decades and should receive a heavy punishment for having done so.

In a 10-minute explanation to the judge of his conduct, the retired intelligence analyst admitted to stealing secrets but stressed that he had no intention to harm the country.

He also said that his goal was to pass along information about US policies to Cuba, which fears the former because of its opposition to the Cuban government.

"The Cuban people feel threatened and they have good reason to feel threatened because the US has pursued a policy of regime change in Cuba,” Myers replied.

"Part of our motivation was to report as accurately as possible about what he thought US policy was toward Cuba, to warn Cuba and to try to assess the nature of the threat,” he added.

Myers began working at the State Department in 1977 as a contract instructor at the Department's Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia.

He moved away from Washington for sometime but then returned and resumed his work with the institute.

From 1988 to 1999, in addition to his FSI duties, he performed work for the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

He later worked as an intelligence analyst specialising on European matters and had daily access to classified information.