The first photographs of two alleged Chinese intelligence cadres, cited by a jailed Greek air force officer charged with espionage, emerged on Thursday and were widely reproduced by local and foreign media.

The photographs were provided by the officer, now a jailed suspect, and show him in “selfies” with the two Chinese men, one taken on what appears to be a site on the Great Wall of China.

The two unidentified men were named by the 54-year-old officer, who held the rank of colonel in the Hellenic Air Force, as “Steven”, the “handler”, and “William”, described as the latter’s “supervisor”.

The same reports have the photographs taken in September 2024 during the jailed man’s visit to Beijing.

The officer ostensibly had extensive expertise in encryption, electronic safeguards and data protection. His continuous training and assumption of a command position had elevated him to a higher level of access to classified information.

He also had knowledge of aircraft movements, exercises and critical operational missions, having served as a NATO evaluator in the field of communications systems (CIS).

The suspect has already told military and civilian investigators that he was recruited over a popular professional social media platform, initially to provide “general analyses”.