A BULGARIAN MAN has been charged with allegedly spying on the United Kingdom for Russia, the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service has said. He is the sixth person to be charged in the espionage case.
Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 38, has been charged with conspiring to obtain, collect, record, publish or communicate documents or information which might be or was intended to be directly or indirectly useful for a purpose prejudicial to the safety and interest of the state.
London’s Met Police said that Ivanchev, of west London, is to appear in custody at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
Ivanchev was arrested on 7 February as part of an ongoing investigation being led by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command.
Commander Dominic Murphy, who leads the counter terrorism team, said:
“A sixth suspect was identified and arrested as a result of inquiries made following the previous five arrests in this investigation, and working with the Crown Prosecution Service, a charge has now been brought.”
Five other people have previously been arrested and are awaiting trial, UK police said.
They include three men and two women accused of conspiring to gather information that would be useful to an enemy between August 2020 and February 2023.
Orlin Roussev, 46, Bizer Dzhambazov, 42, Katrin Ivanova, 32, Ivan Stoyanov, 32, and Vanya Gaberova, 29, were charged with conspiring to collect information intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy “for a purpose prejudicial to the safety and interest of the state”.
Their trial is slated to take begin in October and is expected to last four months.
With reporting from Press Association.
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