The Tokyo High Court on Thursday upheld a suspended prison term for a former officer in the Maritime Self-Defense Force convicted of leaking defense secrets linked to the U.S.-developed Aegis air defense system.

Presiding Judge Manabu Yamazaki turned down the appeal by Sumitaka Matsuuchi, 36, a former lieutenant commander cashiered from the MSDF last December.

Matsuuchi was found guilty of copying data on the Aegis radar system to his personal computer in May 2002 from an MSDF computer and passing a CD containing the data to another MSDF lieutenant commander that August.