The Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office informed that it is conducting an investigation into the crime of espionage under Chapter One of the Special Part of the Criminal Code. This was announced today by the SCPO regarding the information about three Bulgarian citizens detained in Great Britain for espionage in favor of Russia.
It is specified that the pre-trial proceedings were initiated in March 2023. “To establish the criminal activity, joint actions are being carried out with the National Security State Agency. Given the nature of the pre-trial proceedings and the fact that it contains classified information, at this stage no more details can be being provided,” the SCPO’s brief statement from today also said.
Earlier today, the BBC reported that the Bulgarians were detained back in February. The three have been detained under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) and are accused of possessing documents with false content, with the BBC specifying that they are passports, identity cards and other documents for the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece and the Czech Republic.
According to Reuters, they appeared at the Old Bailey on July 31 in relation to their remand and were ordered to remain in custody “until a future date”. The Bulgarians are due to appear in January 2024 before the same court in London, and have not yet announced whether they plead guilty to the charges or are considered innocent, the BBC points out.