French security forces have detained and charged a 48-year-old man born in Belarus who allegedly carried out espionage for the Russian Federation. According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, he was arrested in the act when he was filming drone prototypes at the Delair arms factory near Toulouse
French authorities have detained and charged a Belarusian-born man on suspicion of spying for Russia against a French drone maker, Paris prosecutors said on Friday. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency.
- French authorities detained a Belarusian suspected of espionage for Russia.
- A man was caught filming a military drone prototype.
- The detainee allegedly sent drone videos to his contact in Russia.
He sent drone videos to Russia
The 48-year-old man was arrested on June 3 “while filming a prototype drone belonging to a company that supplies the French and Ukrainian armed forces,” prosecutors said. She added that France’s domestic intelligence service found that the man “allegedly sent the video to a contact in Russia.”
Authorities charged the suspect with passing information to a foreign power, a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison, as well as criminal conspiracy, prosecutors said.
The man, who lives in Spain, targeted a Delair factory near the city of Toulouse, a source close to the case said. The same factory was attacked with Molotov cocktails a day before his arrest, but the explosive devices did not explode, the source added. It is not immediately clear whether the two incidents are related, AFP added.
