A Florida International University professor and his wife, who pleaded guilty in a federal case involving allegations that they spied for Cuba, were sentenced to prison terms by a federal judge in Miami on Tuesday, according an Associated Press report in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Carlos Alvarez, an associate professor in the university’s College of Education, was given a five-year term, plus three years of probation. His wife, Elsa Alvarez, was sentenced to three years in prison and one year of probation. Those were the maximum sentences both could get under sentencing guidelines and the terms of a plea agreement made in December. An indictment unsealed last year had accused the Alvarezes of acting as agents of President Fidel Castro of Cuba without registering with the U.S. government.

At a sentencing hearing, the Alvarezes apologized and took responsibility for their actions. But they also said that they were neither communists nor supporters of Mr. Castro, but were just trying to establish open dialogue with Cuba, where both were born before coming to the United States.