Paris | The French government has taken legal action against a French officer for “breach of security,” Armed Minister Florence Parly announced on Sunday.
“What I can confirm is that a senior officer is subject to legal proceedings for breach of security,” she said in the program “Le Grand Rendez-vous” of the radio Europe 1, the CNews channel and the daily “Les Echos”, without going into the details of the case.
According to Europe 1, this officer, a lieutenant-colonel stationed on a NATO base in Italy, was recently indicted for treason for the benefit of Russia.
He is suspected of having provided ultra-sensitive documents to the Russian secret services, affirms the radio on its website.
The man was arrested by the Directorate General of Internal Security (DGSI) as he was preparing to return to Italy at the end of his vacation in France and placed in pre-trial detention at the Health prison in Paris, pursues Europe 1.
“It is France which took the initiative of this legal procedure”, indicated Florence Parly.
“We have taken all the protective measures that were necessary and now it is necessary that the justice can do its work in the respect of the secrecy of the instruction”, she added without further details on the merits of the. case.