A Belarusian national is accused of having filmed a prototype of a French military drone for Russia, in Haute-Garonne. Indicted, he risks up to fifteen years in prison for endangering national interests.
A man suspected of having spied on a French drone factory, for the benefit of Russia, was indicted and placed in provisional detention at the beginning of June, AFP learned from the Paris prosecutor’s office, confirming information from Le Parisien.
This 48-year-old man, born in Belarus, was born on June 3,“while filming a drone prototype from a company supplying the French and Ukrainian armies”, a précisé le parquet.
“Investigations carried out by the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) established that he would have sent a video to an interlocutor in Russia,” he added.
Up to 15 years in prison
Two days later, the Paris public prosecutor’s office, which is investigating suspicions of foreign interference committed throughout France, opened a judicial investigation, entrusted to an investigating judge, for several attacks on the fundamental interests of the nation.
The man is notably indicted for having provided information to a foreign power, Russia, a crime carrying a penalty of 15 years in detention, and for criminal association, added the prosecution.
According to a source close to the matter, the man residing in Spain visited the Delair factory, in Labège, near Toulouse. The factory had been targeted two days before its arrest by Molotov cocktail jets which had not exploded, this source said.
