A security guard at the British embassy in Berlin has pleaded not guilty to nine charges under the Official Secrets Act after being accused of spying for Russia.
David Smith was arrested by German police on 10 August last year and is accused of collecting information from the embassy with the intention of passing it to a foreign state.
The 57-year-old appeared at Westminister Magistrates Court this morning wearing a blue jumper and jeans and confirmed his name and age, but told the court that he no longer had an address.
He was extradited from Germany yesterday.
Read more: More than 40 Russian diplomats expelled from four countries over alleged spying
After the hearing, he was remanded in custody and is now due to appear at the Old Bailey on 13 April.
One of the nine charges relates to allegations he passed information to a person he believed was a representative of the Russian state, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
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The alleged offences were committed between October 2020 and August 2021.
What do the charges claim?
The charges allege Smith “attempted to communicate” by letter with “General Major Sergey Chukhurov, the Russian military attache based out of the Russian embassy, Berlin”.
The material “contained details about the activities, identities, addresses and telephone numbers of various members of Her Majesty’s Civil Service”.
The charges go on to claim Smith gave information about building repairs at the embassy after being approached by someone he “believed to be a member of Russian Military Intelligence (the GRU)”.
He allegedly “collected material relating to the operation and layout of the British Embassy in Berlin”, with that information thought or intended to be “useful to an enemy, namely the Russian state”.
Smith also allegedly made unauthorised photocopies of documents, video recordings of the embassy’s CCTV system and “kept sim card packaging” he had been asked to “dispose of”.
