DECRYPTION
The affair looks like a scenario of the Bureau of Legends , but it is indeed real: as Europe 1 revealed to you on Sunday morning, a French soldier was arrested for treason, suspected of having transmitted sensitive information to Russia. . "A senior officer is under legal proceedings for breach of security," confirmed the Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly, guest of the Grand Rendez-vous .
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What do we know about this man?
This soldier is an army lieutenant-colonel, stationed at NATO - not at the organization's headquarters in Brussels, but at a base in Italy. He works precisely at the command center of the allied forces, located near Naples. According to information from Europe 1, the suspect, in his fifties and father of five children, has distant family roots in Russia, and is fluent in the language of this country.
What are the charges against him?
It was in Italy that this senior officer was seen in contact with a Russian spy, an agent of the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service. As soon as these suspicions appeared, France did not want to take the risk of continuing to let him act. "The Ministry of the Armed Forces has taken the initiative to seize the public prosecutor by activating article 40 (of the Code of Criminal Procedure which provides that any officer who acquires knowledge of a crime informs the judicial authority without delay. , note ) ", indicated Florence Parly.
The Paris prosecutor's office has opened an investigation and the Directorate General of Internal Security (DGSI) arrested the suspect soldier ten days ago, while he was finishing his vacation in France and getting ready to go back to Italy.
What is he risking?
Providing ultra-sensitive documents or information to a Russian agent is an act qualified as "treason" by French justice. A crime, punishable by fifteen years imprisonment before an assize court. While the investigation is now entrusted to an investigating judge, the soldier, indicted, is imprisoned in the prison of Health.