A security guard at the British embassy in Berlin suspected of spying for Russia has been extradited from Germany and will appear in a British court on Thursday, police said.
David Smith, 57, was arrested on August 10 last year by German police and is accused of collecting information from the British Embassy in Berlin with the intention of passing it on to a foreign state.
One of the nine prosecutors is facing allegations that he passed information to a person he believed was a representative of the Russian state, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
He was flown out of Germany today and is due to appear in Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, Metropolitan Police said.
The alleged crimes were committed between October 2020 and August 2021.
Smith, who worked as a security guard at the British embassy in Berlin, was returned from Germany to the United Kingdom on April 6 after being arrested by German police last August.
Nick Price, head of the Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division at the CPS, said: “David Smith has been charged with nine crimes in violation of the Official Secrets Act.
“He is accused of seven offenses of collecting information with the intention of sending it to the Russian authorities, one of trying to communicate and one of giving information to a person he believed was a member of the Russian authorities. .
“After assessing the case and authorizing prosecutors, we received an extradition order and worked closely with our German colleagues to bring Mr Smith back to the United Kingdom.”
Smith was understood to be controlled by MI5 and was arrested in Potsdam on charges that he had worked “for a foreign secret service”, the German public ministry said at the time.
His arrest was the result of a joint investigation by German and British authorities and investigators searched his home and office, the prosecutor’s statement said.
British embassy security guard suspects Russian spy extradited from Germany to UK | UK News
