The London-based 33-year-old van der Zwaan, the son-in-law of a Russian oligarch, is the first person convicted and sentenced in the Russia probe headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller regarding possible Kremlin links with Trump’s campaign. US intelligence agencies have accused Moscow of interfering in the elections. Judge Amy Berman Jackson said that the sentence was designed to “reflect the seriousness of the offence, promote respect for the law” and reduce sentencing disparities. “This is not something that happened to him. This is something he did,” she said. “He put is persol interests ahead of the interests of justice.” The Belgian-born accused must also spend two months under supervised release after he completes his sentence. The sentence handed down against van der Zwaan is within the bounds of what had been expected, given that earlier the judge had weighed the possibility of sentencing him to a maximum of six months behind bars. In addition, the sentence will allow van der Zwaan to return to his residence in London in time to be present at the birth of his first child in August, a matter that had been a priority for his attorneys.