The government of United Kingdom sentenced a security guard who worked at the embassy that the European nation has in Berlin to 13 years in prison for having carried out espionage tasks for Russia. This is David Smith, a 58-year-old man who, according to the judge in the case, delivered papers that could put the safety of the staff of this building or British interests at risk.
Smith began collecting information since 2018 but it was not until 2020 that he began to send letters with members of the Russian embassy, including the identity of a diplomat from the United Kingdom who had worked in the Eurasian nation, as well as details of the lives of his colleagues.
Police began investigating him in November 2020 after one of his letters was traced back to him, which started a sting operation in August 2021 where two people from the British security forces posed as a Russian defector and an intelligence agent. In this way the officers of the United Kingdom They managed to arrest him and in his home they found a box with secret and sensitive documents, among which there were even letters between the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson and people from his cabinet.
Smith originally confessed to all 8 counts after claiming he just wanted the embassy to be “embarrassed” due to its poor relationship with the island nation, but further investigation revealed that he received funding from Russia, proving a relationship between him and Putin’s government. In this way, it was decided that the former security guard would receive 13 years and two months in prison for his actions against of the British government.
Judge’s comments
In a sentence that was televised in the countries that make up the United Kingdomthe judge was very harsh against the man, who indicated that he was: “fully aware that he should not copy those documents, and that by doing so he put his co-workers and the country itself at risk.”
“You established regular contact with someone at the Russian embassy and that contact was the conduit through which the illegally obtained material was passed,” the judge said. who dismissed Smith’s expressions of regret as “self-pity” and failed to understand that his actions had “potentially catastrophic consequences for others.”
