Belarusian man in his forties remanded in custody for industrial espionage on behalf of Moscow
A 48-year-old man born in Belarus was committed for trial and remanded in custody in early June for filming a military drone prototype at a Toulouse factory and transmitting the video to a contact in Russia.
Belarusian man in his forties remanded in custody for industrial espionage on behalf of Moscow
A Belarusian national aged 48 was placed on remand by the Paris judiciary in early June. He is accused of attempting to steal industrial secrets relating to military drones produced by a company in the Toulouse region, reports France 24.
On 3 June, security services arrested the individual as he was filming a prototype in the premises of Delair, in Labège. This company supplies the French and Ukrainian armed forces. Investigators from the DGSI discovered that he had sent the images to a correspondent located abroad, on the side of the Russian Federation.
On 5 June, the Paris prosecutor's office handed the case to an investigating magistrate. The file concerns violations of the fundamental interests of the nation. The suspect is being prosecuted for communicating information to a foreign power, an offence which carries a penalty of up to fifteen years imprisonment, as well as for criminal complicity.
The man, who normally lived in Spain, had targeted the Labège site. Forty-eight hours before his arrest, this same factory had suffered a firebomb attack with a Molotov cocktail. Prosecutor David Charmatz confirmed the opening of a parallel procedure for damage by inflammable substance.
Delair, a French pioneer in unmanned aircraft, has 250 employees and achieved 50 million euros in turnover last year. The company's spokesman, Stéphane Douce, assured that production had not been affected and that additional protective measures had been put in place.
Source: France 24 - France