French military, illustration. - RAIGO PAJULA / AFP

  • A French officer stationed at a NATO base near Naples is suspected of spying on behalf of the Russians.
  • He was imprisoned in particular for "understanding with a foreign power undermining the fundamental interests of the Nation".
  • The information was confirmed on Sunday morning by the Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly.

A case worthy of the Bureau des Légendes series . A French officer stationed at a NATO base in Italy is suspected of having spied on behalf of Russia. The man was imprisoned in late August in Paris, Europe 1 radio revealed on Sunday.

“What I can confirm is that a senior officer is subject to legal proceedings for breach of security,” confirmed the French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly on Sunday in the program “Le Grand Rendez- you ”without going into the details of the case. 20 Minutes takes stock of what we know about this arrest.

A soldier suspected of treason: "We have taken all the necessary protective measures", assures Parly https://t.co/Dq3TlRyHuj

- Europe 1 🎧🌍📻 (@ Europe1) August 30, 2020

What is he accused of?

The soldier based in Naples is accused of "intelligence with a foreign power attacking the fundamental interests of the Nation". He is also being prosecuted for "delivering information to a foreign power". The officer is thus suspected of having provided highly sensitive documents to the Russian secret services, according to Europe 1. The radio indicates that it is a meeting with a Russian spy, an agent of the GRU (Russian military intelligence service), which would have aroused the suspicions of the French authorities.

The French soldier was imprisoned for four offenses, according to a judicial source. He is thus prosecuted for "intelligence with a foreign power detrimental to the fundamental interests of the Nation", "delivery of information to a foreign power", "collection of information detrimental to the fundamental interests of the Nation in order to deliver them. to a foreign power ”and“ compromise of the secrecy of national defense by a person holding this secrecy ”.

What do we know about this man?

Little has filtered through the profile of the French agent. According to Europe 1, it is about a lieutenant-colonel of the French army stationed at NATO, near Naples (Italy). The man would be assigned to the command center of the allied forces, in charge of the security of southern Europe and northern Africa, in particular Libya. The radio said he would be in his fifties and father of five, Russian-speaking, with distant family ties in the country.

The man was arrested by the counter-espionage services, the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI), as he was preparing to return to Italy at the end of his vacation in France. He is currently in pre-trial detention at the Health prison in Paris, Europe 1 said.

Why did France seize the prosecutor?

"It is France which took the initiative of this legal procedure", underlined Florence Parly. She specified that her ministry had seized the public prosecutor under article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which requires any public authority to report to justice a crime or offense of which it is aware. This report, dated July 22, gave rise to the opening of a judicial investigation by the prosecution on July 29.

The indictments and convictions of soldiers for espionage for the benefit of a foreign power are rare in France, and less than ten since the Cold War. The authorities prefer to settle this type of business internally and away from the media. But France could have been forced to make this report by the characteristics of the accusation (within an integrated command and shared with other countries, on foreign territory). Is the procedure also political? According to information gathered by Le Monde from the French authorities, this judicial alert is a way of sending "a message of firmness to Russia", in a context of diplomatic tensions, relating to the events in Belarus in particular.

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A French officer imprisoned for "intelligence with a foreign power"

  • Army
  • NATO
  • Spying
  • Russia
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  • Society