A 59 -year -old Greek was placed in pre -trial detention for having photographed military convoys heading for Ukraine, suspected of spying for the benefit of Russia. Former Russian soldier, he would have transmitted images via an encrypted application, denying the accusations during his hearing.
A 59 -year -old Greek suspected of having photographed Russia on behalf of Russia for military convoys going to Ukraine was placed in pre -trial detention on Friday by the Greek justice, a judicial source told AFP. Greek police had announced that they had arrested this man of Georgian origin on Tuesday in the strategic port city of Alexandroupolis, in the northeast of Greece.
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Presented on Friday to an investigating judge, the suspect said that he had “did nothing illegal”, according to a judicial source interviewed after this hearing. He also said he had no detainees or transmitted to confidential information. This fifties said that “photos showing the transport of NATO equipment had already been published on numerous occasions in the media, both local and on the Internet,” continued this judicial source.
A former Russian army
According to television images, his face was hidden when he entered the judge’s office and refused to answer questions from journalists present outside the building. In a statement released on Tuesday, police said that he had been arrested during an intelligence services.
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-This man “admitted to having taken photos and videos of military equipment” and to have acted “on behalf of another person to whom he sent the sequences via an encrypted application,” the police said in his statement. But, according to the judicial source contacted on Friday, he told the investigating judge that he had never recognized the facts alleged against him.
A police source interviewed earlier Friday by AFP said that the fifties, who claimed to be a building painter, photographed military convoys heading for Ukraine, according to the images recovered on his mobile phone. This source added that the suspect, who had served in the Russian army in his youth, had apparently been recruited by the Russian military intelligence service GRU, via an intermediary. He said he refused to be paid and sent the images of his own free will, according to this source. He faces five to ten years in prison if he is found guilty of spying.
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A strategic port
Greek media assured that the intermediary was a Georgian with links with organized crime and living in Lithuania where he would have been arrested in March. Lithuanian justice, requested by AFP, did not wish to comment on this information.
In 2023, the case of a Russian woman living in Greece for years under the identity of a little Greek girl who has been dead for a long time had been uncovered. This alleged dormant agent, who pretended to be the owner of a store in Athens, had fled Greek territory before the authorities could challenge him.
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Despite its historical links with Russia, Greece has supported Ukraine since the start of the invasion which it has strongly criticized, welcoming Ukrainian refugees and providing humanitarian aid and weapons to kyiv. The Greek port of Alexandroupolis is an essential gateway to the American soldiers who transport supplies in Europe as part of a mutual defense pact.
