A female intern at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) has been detained in Belgium on suspicion of espionage on behalf of a third country and participation in a criminal organisation. The Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced this on Saturday, 25 July.
The suspect is a Canadian national of Chinese origin. She worked as an intern at SHAPE, the alliance’s strategic military headquarters in the Belgian city of Mons. She came to the attention of the headquarters’ internal security service, after which the information was passed to Belgium’s General Intelligence and Security Service (SGRS) and then to the federal prosecutor’s office.
On 23 July, the Charleroi Federal Judicial Police carried out searches at the suspect’s home and her workplace on the NATO headquarters premises. Specialists, including from the computer crime unit, seized potential digital and physical evidence. On 24 July, an investigating judge at the Court of First Instance of Hainaut (Mons division) issued an arrest warrant, and the woman was taken into custody.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office has not disclosed the name of the detainee or the country on whose behalf she is suspected of acting. A SHAPE spokesperson stated that the operational readiness, command and control systems, and ongoing tasks of the headquarters and NATO as a whole have not been affected. The investigation is continuing.