An elderly French army policeman stationed at a NATO base has actually been arraigned as well as jailed on suspicion of spying for Russia, neighborhood media as well as resources said on Sunday.
The French army policeman was posted abroad, a judicial resource said verifying information from Europe 1 radio. According to the report, the soldier was based on a NATO base in Italy and also is suspected of reconnaissance in support of Russia.
The French government verified it was exploring a senior army policeman over a “protection breach”.
” What I can verify is that an elderly policeman is encountering legal process for a safety breach,” Defence Minister Florence Parly informed Europe 1 radio, CNews as well as Les Echos newspaper.
She provided no further details.
The judicial resource claimed the officer had been prosecuted as well as imprisoned on charges entailing “knowledge with a foreign power that undermines the fundamental rate of interests of the country”.
He is being prosecuted for “delivering info to a foreign power”, “collecting details hurting the fundamental rate of interests of the country for providing them to an international power” and also “jeopardizing the privacy of nationwide defense”, the source claimed.
Europe 1 said the officer was a lieutenant-colonel posted with NATO in Italy and had been put under examination on uncertainty of snooping for Russia.
He talks Russian and also was seen in Italy with a guy recognized as an agent of the GRU, the Russian armed forces intelligence service, the record said.
It stated he is believed of having provided sensitive records to Russian intelligence.
The guy was jailed by DGSI intelligence solution as he was about to leave for Italy at the end of his holidays in France, and also is being held at a prison in Paris, Europe 1 stated.
France ‘Very Worried’ Over Belarus Election Violence, Macron Tells Putin
France is very stressed by the physical violence in Belarus after the weekend’s political elections in the ex-Soviet state, French President Emmanuel Macron said in telephone talks with his Russian equivalent Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.
Macron informed Putin he is “really concerned regarding the situation in Belarus and the physical violence that residents have dealt with during the elections,” the Elysee stated in a statement.
” He emphasized the demand to find once more the path of dialogue.”
The talks, which likewise discussed the coronavirus situation and the situation in Lebanon after the enormous port explosion last week, were the current in a string of routine contacts in between Macron as well as Putin.
In a placement that has often place him at odds with EU allies, Macron has gone after a policy of dialogue with Russia, even on problems where the two sides differ.
Militants in Belarus have actually rallied on successive nights to contest strongman President Alexander Lukashenko’s case of having actually won Sunday’s political election in a landslide.
The EU and also U.S. have actually strongly condemned the taking place suppression that has seen hundreds apprehended in frequently brutal conditions.
Putin, in addition to Chinese President Xi Jinping, was one of minority key globe leaders to congratulate Lukashenko after the survey.