More details continued to emerge in rapid fashion in local media on Friday after the arrest of a 54-year-old Hellenic Air Force base commander allegedly caught spying for China.
The man was initially identified as being 50. His rank, a colonel, and the base (128th command) in the southeast Athens coastal district of Kavouri, remain the same.
The highly trained and educated senior air force officer, an IT and communications specialist but not an aviator, had also travelled to China, reports stated on Friday.
The arrest and alleged information handed over to a foreign state, including highly sensitive information regarding NATO, includes communications, frequencies and radar operations.
The latest reports out of Athens directly refer to the US CIA as “latching on” to the Greek military officer since last October, with a subsequent investigation by local authorities and the intelligence service first aiming to confirm the suspicion and then to pinpoint exactly what information he was passing on to Beijing.
The initial announcement of his arrest and questioning claims the man readily confessed espionage, while referring to a cryptographic device given to him with which to relay the sensitive information.
According to crime reporter to Vassilis Lambropoulos, speaking on Mega Channel:
“The picture that emerges is that the espionage activity, namely, collaboration of this particular individual with China, is not that long … All this started with the US intelligence services, who were paying more attention to the activities of the Chinese than those of the Greek, and through their focus on Chinese spies, they discovered that they were also collaborating with the Greek military officer.”
“It seems that his approach was gradual, i.e. at first they asked for some advice, technical explanations on some general issues, having met at a conference, and from there it progressed, he (suspect) began to be paid and to provide information …They (Greek authorities) caught on to this in the early stages…From 2019 onwards, he maintained a more professional profile, mainly posting photos from conferences and events.”
Other media reports point to at least 18 months.
Trip to China
Later reports stated that the jailed officer had over the past few years started posted professional and background information on social media, possibly ahead of a looming retirement from the Greek air force. Contacts with Chinese companies led to a meeting with Chinese nationals on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Brussel. A later trip to China, ostensibly to study the Chinese language, eventually led to his alleged recruitment by Chinese secret services.
The suspect has been given a deadline to provide testimony to an investigating magistrate next Tuesday and will remain in custody. In an announcement on Friday, the national defense general staff said the officer has been suspended from his duties.
A conviction for felony espionage can carry a life sentence and loss of one’s citizenship.
