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Ex-CIA official sentenced for drugging, assaulting woman in Algeria

By the CNN Wire Staff
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Andrew Warren, 43, has been sentenced to 65 months in prison in a D.C. district court
  • He rendered a woman unconscious and had "abusive sexual contact," he said in 2010
  • The incident occurred in 2008 at the U.S. Embassy in Algiers, Algeria
  • Warren also confessed to using cocaine while carrying a semi-automatic pistol

(CNN) -- A former CIA station chief in Algeria was sentenced Thursday to more than five years in prison after admitting he drugged and sexually assaulted a woman at the U.S. Embassy in Algiers.

U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle handed down a 65-month sentence, which will be followed by 10 years of supervised release, in a District of Columbia courtroom against 43-year-old Andrew Warren. The one-time intelligence official had plead guilty in June 2010 on charges of abusive sexual contact and unlawful use of cocaine, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

In his plea hearing, Warren confessed that on February 17, 2008, he rendered a woman unconscious and then committed "abusive sexual contact" at the American embassy in Algeria.

Warren also admitted that, on April 26, 2010, he used cocaine while possessing a 9 mm Glock semi-automatic pistol.

These admissions came more than a year after Warren initially surrended to authorities, after a federal grand jury returned a one-count indictment regarding the sexual assault allegation. While the incident happened in Africa, the legal action was pursued in Washington, D.C., courts because it took place at an American embassy, which is considered U.S. territory.

The State Department had acknowledged Warren had been ordered back to the United States, before the case became public in January. The State Department confirmed its internal investigation found behavior that prompted the action.

An affidavit by a State Department investigator included allegations by two women who separately said they had been raped, and they suspected their drinks had been drugged. Only one of those victims was related to Thursday's sentencing.

Warren initially told investigators he had "consensual sexual intercourse" with the two women, according to the affidavit.

He was fired fired by the CIA in 2009.