Editing Klaus Fuchs (section)

==Trial and imprisonment==
Fuchs was prosecuted by Sir [[Hartley Shawcross]]{{sfn|Williams|1987|pp=129–130}} and was convicted on 1 March 1950 of four counts of breaking the [[Official Secrets Act]] by "communicating information to a potential enemy."{{sfn|Goodman|2005|p=132}} Fuchs had entered guilty pleas, and his barrister [[Derek Curtis-Bennett]] limited his case to a general plea in mitigation on the grounds of his state of mind and desire to assist the Soviets in defeating the Nazis and winning the war. Fuchs consented to the advice not to raise the question of inducement in his decision to admit guilt.{{sfn|Greenspan|2020|pp=295-298}}

After a [[trial (law)|trial]] lasting less than 90 minutes that was based on his confession, [[Rayner Goddard, Baron Goddard|Lord Goddard]] sentenced Fuchs to 14 years' [[imprisonment]], the maximum for [[espionage]]. The judge argued that his crime could not have been considered [[treason]] (which was a [[capital crime]]),  because the Soviet Union was classed as [[Allies of World War II|an ally at the time]].{{sfn|Moss|1987|pp=158–165}} On 21 February 1951, he was formally stripped of his [[British citizenship]].{{sfn|Moss|1987|p=184}}<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=39156 |date=23 February 1951 |page=977}}</ref>
The head of the [[Nuclear weapons and the United Kingdom|British H-bomb project]], Sir [[William Penney]], visited Fuchs in prison in 1952.{{sfn|Laucht|2012|p=79}} While imprisoned, Fuchs was friendly with the [[Irish Republican Army]] prisoner Seamus Murphy with whom he played chess and helped to escape.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=Irish Times |date=28 November 2015 |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/ira-prisoner-on-life-sentence-who-escaped-from-wakefield-prison-1.2446680?mode=amp |title=IRA prisoner on life sentence who escaped from Wakefield prison|access-date=24 July 2023}}</ref>

Fuchs was released on 23 June 1959 after he had served nine years and four months of his sentence (as was then required in England where long-term prisoners were entitled by law to one third off for good behaviour in prison) at [[Wakefield Prison]] and promptly emigrated to the [[German Democratic Republic]] (GDR).{{sfn|Hoffmann|2009|p=416}}