Britain Arrests Three Spy Suspects For Russia: Bulgarian Citizen, One Of Them Is A Woman

Illustration. (Pixabay/peterbwiberg)

JAKARTA - Three Bulgarians were arrested and charged by British authorities on charges of espionage against Russia, one of whom was a woman, who was arrested in February and detained since then.

The three are Orlin Roussev (45) from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, Bizer Dzmanguzov (41) and Katrin Ivanova (31) from Harrow, northwest London.

Citing the BBC on August 15, the three have lived in the UK for years, worked in various jobs and lived on a number of suburban properties.

Counter-terrorism Detective from the Metropolitan Police, which has the responsibility of the national police for espionage, arrested the three under the Official Secrets Act.

They were charged with having identity documents with "not true intentions", and allegedly learned that the documents were fake, including passports, identity cards and other documents for Britain, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, and the Czech Republic.

The plan is that the three defendants will be tried at Old Bailey, London in January. They have not filed a defense against the charges.

Earlier, police counter-terrorism had spoken publicly about increasing the country's alleged threats and espionage, especially those related to Russia.

It reflects on a number of incidents in recent years involving Russian intelligence operations in the UK.

In 2018, Russian agents attempted to kill former double agent Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia in Salisbury, Wiltshire, using the Novichok lethal neuron poison. The couple, as well as detective Nick Bailey who responded, had to receive treatment at the hospital.

At the end of that year, Dawn Sturgess, died after being exposed to nerve toxins left in a perfume bottle.

In 2006, former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko was killed in London, after allegedly being poisoned by a killer who worked for Russia.

Britain has sharpened its focus on external security threats, passed a new national security law last month, to ward off espionage and foreign interference with updated tools and criminal provisions.

Last year, Britain's head of domestic intelligence (MI5) said more than 400 Russian spy suspects had been expelled from Europe.