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French Defense Minister Florence Parly confirmed this Sunday that a high-ranking officer is subject to judicial proceedings for compromising security, “without providing additional information. In the details, Radio Europe-1 revealed that the General Directorate of Security Nacional arrested the officer working at a NATO base in Italy and was temporarily arrested in a Paris prison on suspicion of handing over confidential documents to Russia.
French authorities accused a high-ranking French officer, who was based at a NATO base in Italy, of spying for Russia and was jailed in late August, “Europa-1” radio reported on Sunday. which was partially confirmed by the French government and a judicial source. According to the radio, the officer is suspected of providing highly sensitive documents to Russian intelligence.
The radio was based on Your website Until recently, the officer was charged with treason on behalf of Russia. He is suspected of handing over highly sensitive documents to Russian intelligence services. Adding that the General Directorate of Internal Security arrested the officer as he was preparing to return to Italy at the end of his vacation in France and was temporarily detained in a prison in Paris.
“Barley confirms that an officer is under investigation for compromising security”
For his part, affirmed the minister of the French armies Barley florence Sunday to Radio “Europa-1”, to the channel “Sineuse” and to the newspaper “Les Echos” that “the only thing I can confirm is that a high-ranking officer is subject to a judicial process for violating security”, without entering in the details of the case.
Parly stated that “France initiated this judicial proceeding,” explaining that his ministry sent the file to the Public Ministry under article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which obliges public authorities to inform the Judiciary of any crime or lack of law. have knowledge.
Parley added, “We have taken all the necessary protection measures, and now the Judiciary must do its job within the framework of respect for the confidentiality of the investigation,” without further details.
But the Paris prosecutor declined to comment on the matter in response to questions from the French news agency.
“The French officer met with an agent from Russia”
According to the website “Le Mamout”, which specializes in defense issues, “the officer’s duty station was in Naples, the main Atlantic site in Italy, where the French work.”
According to the radio, the lieutenant colonel is fifty years old and the father of five children. He speaks Russian and is seen in Italy with a man who turned out to be an agent of the Russian army intelligence services.
“The judiciary is responsible for focusing attention on these activities,” the ministry said. “The Ministry of Armies will offer its full cooperation regarding the confidentiality of the ongoing investigation.”
This notification, dated July 22, led to the opening of a judicial investigation by the Public Ministry on July 29 against the official on charges of “betraying intelligence with foreign force and gathering information to hand over to a foreign power. “, according to the judicial source.
The indictment or conviction of military personnel for spying for a foreign country, especially Russia or in the era of the former Soviet Union, is rare in France and the number of these cases has not exceeded ten since the Cold War.
In July, two former foreign intelligence agents were convicted of treason in favor of China.
In 2001, a French officer working for NATO was convicted of providing Serbia in 1998 with information about NATO incursions into this country during the Kosovo war.
This information comes at a time when the Atlantic is going through a complex phase and is under severe criticism from Donald Trump and faces unclear strategies due to the foreign policy of the United States and also to the tension between France and Greece on the one hand and Turkey on the other.
In November 2019, French President Emmanuel Macron, a supporter of Europe’s strategic independence from the United States, declared that NATO was in a state of “clinical death.”
France 24 / AFP
