An employee of the British embassy was sentenced to 13 years and 2 months in prison Berlinas he was found guilty of the commission espionage on behalf of of Russia.
THE 58-year-old David Balladine Smithwho had pleaded guilty to collecting classified information for more than three years, including “classified” government communications with then-prime minister Boris Johnson and other sensitive documents, and was caught red-handed passing sensitive documents to the Russian embassy in Berlin .
The judge noted that the charges for which Smith was convicted related to his actions between 2020 and 2021but “his subversive activities had begun two years earlier.”
Smith admitted sending two letters containing sensitive information to people in the Russian embassy in Berlin, but Judge Wall noted: “I am confident that at some point in 2020 you established a permanent link with someone in the Russian embassy and that link allowed you to transmit documents which you obtained illegally’. “You were paid by Russia for your treason,” he stressed.
Smith pleaded guilty in November to eight charges under the State Secrets Actincluding a charge related to passing information to Lt. Gen. Sergei Shuhrov, the Russian military attaché in Berlin, in November 2020.
The remaining seven charges related to gathering information that could be useful to Russia, four of which related to an MI5 officer posing as “Dmitry”, a Russian national who was supposed to be providing assistance to Britain.
Earlier this week, Smith told the court he was ashamed of what he had done and that he photographed the documents after consuming too much beer.
“I’m sure you committed these crimes”
He added that it “seemed like a good idea at the time”, but noted that he did not pass the documents on to anyone who would “knowingly harm Britain”. But the judge rejected Smith’s evidence that he felt remorse, saying: “Your regrets are nothing but self-pity». He also noted that his motivation was his anti-British and pro-Russian views, which were “the immediate cause of your offence”.
“I am sure you committed these crimes with the intention of helping Russia, a state which was then, as now, regarded as hostile to the United Kingdom,” the judge told Smith. “Your motive in helping them was to harm British interests.”
also rejected Smith’s testimony that he committed these crimes while struggling with mental health issues that he was facing. “I don’t see any logical cause-and-effect relationship between depression and the decision to betray your country,” he stressed.
Source: News Beast
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