A suspected spy at the British Embassy in Germany who is accused of trying to leak secret documents and information to Russia will stand trial in February next year.
David Smith, 57, allegedly compiled a dossier of names and activities of UK agents in a bid to hand it over to a Russian military general while working as a security guard at the Berlin embassy.
He is accused of taking videos of CCTV systems, gathering intelligence on the layout of the embassy, amassing documents marked ‘secret’, and making copies with a view to them being leaked.
Smith, wearing a green polo shirt and jeans, appeared at the Old Bailey via videolink from HMP Belmarsh, where is currently being held, for a preliminary hearing on Wednesday morning.
Last week he entered not guilty pleas to all nine charges that he faces when he first appeared at Westminster magistrates court.
On Wednesday, Mr Justice Sweeney set the case down for a trial to start on February 13 next year, in front of a High Court judge.
According to the charges, Smith allegedly wrote a letter to General Major Sergey Chukhurov, the military attaché at the Russian Embassy in Germany, containing “details about the activities, identities, addresses and telephone numbers of various members of Her Majesty’s Civil Service”.
It is said he “collected material relating to the operation and layout of the British Embassy in Berlin”, is accused of amassing “material classified at ‘Secret’ relating to the activities of Her Majesty’s Government and the British Embassy in Berlin”, and he allegedly made photocopies of documents as well as “video recordings of the CCTV system”.
The security guard is also accused of keeping hold of SIM card packaging when he had been told to dispose of it.
Smith was arrested last August, when it is said he passed on information about embassy building repairs to “a person you believed to be a member of Russian Military Intelligence”, the charges state.
He was extradited from Germany to the UK last week, and faces nine alleged breaches of the Official Secrets Act, between October 2020 and August last year.
Smith will be held in custody until his trial, with a further preliminary hearing set for July 29.
