Lithuania spy leaked NATO secrets to Belarus

  • 2014-12-04
  • From wire reports, VILNIUS

A Lithuanian military paramedic had been spying for Belarus for five years and gathering sensitive information on NATO exercises, a spokesman for Lithuania's Prosecutor General Office has said.

The citizen, born 1986, who has only been named as A.O would feed Belarus with information about the Armed Forces of Lithuania, Raimondas Petrauskas, deputy chief prosecutor of the Organized Crime and Corruption Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General's Office said.

Leaked information included about the military equipment and weaponry in possession, participation in international NATO operations, plans of standard operations, various military trainings, information on the number of persons in specific elements or services, their personal information, characteristics and moral and psychological attitudes, daily agenda. The spy also share information about military equipment, military training programmes, exercises, objects of the Lithuanian Armed Forces and their purposes.

The suspect would be given monetary remuneration for his services, although persecutors did not disclose the amount. The suspect spy would give the collected information to a staff member of the Belarusian secret service.

The man born in Kaunas, was single, with no criminal record. He served at the Lithuanian Grand Duke Algirdas Mechanized Infantry Battalion and raised no suspicions previously, therefore, was very convenient for foreign intelligence bodies.

The suspect paramedic did not have a security clearance to access to classified information but was able to provide daily information. He also took part in international exercises.

Prosecutors say that the suspect is cooperating and giving evidence.

"He is sorry," the deputy chief prosecutor of the Organized Crime and Corruption Investigation Department said when he was asked whether the suspect admitted his guilt.

Prosecutors do not have information whether the collected data would reach Russia.

The pre-trial investigation was launched on 21 January, 2014.

The case is not the first time when special services report about people apprehended for spying. On November 10, A Lithuanian citizen who spied for Belarus and showed interest in the organisation of flights in Lithuania was arrested.

(Edited by Rayyan Sabet-Parry)