Former French intelligence agents suspected of spying ‘for China’
Two ex-spies charged with giving information to a foreign power while a third person faces prosecution for allegedly covering up ‘treasonable crimes’
Two former French intelligence agents have been charged with passing intelligence to a “foreign power”, the government said on Thursday, with French media reporting the country as China.
The two now-retired General Directorate for External Security (DGSE) agents, and the wife of one of them, were being prosecuted for “acts of extreme gravity”, the armed forces ministry said in a statement.
They were charged on December 22 and two of them had since been held in custody, a judicial source said.
DGSE is France’s foreign intelligence agency, similar to Britain’s MI6 or the United States’ CIA.
The Quotidien television programme and the Le Monde daily reported four people were suspected of having been recruited by the Chinese authorities to spy on French foreign intelligence.