Australia arrests former Australian soldier and his husband for accessing confidential material to exchange with Russia

Australian police said on Friday they had arrested a former Australian soldier and her husband, both Russian-born and Australian citizens, on charges of accessing classified military material with the intent to share it with Moscow.

The accused are a 40-year-old woman, an Australian citizen since 2016 and a private in the Australian Army, and her 62-year-old husband, an independent worker who naturalised as an Australian citizen in 2020, according to a statement from the Australian Federal Police.

The two arrived in Australia more than a decade ago and were arrested on Thursday at their home in Brisbane, in the country’s north-east, according to a statement also signed by the spy agency Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).

A woman who worked for several years as an information systems technician and received military clearance and her husband were charged with committing a crime related to preparation for espionage.

It is the first espionage charge in Australia since the Foreign Interference Act was passed in 2018, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

An alleged Russian spy operation has been “disrupted”, meaning it no longer poses a significant risk to national security, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw told a news conference in Canberra.

“Our partners Five Eyes [aliança de serviços secretos que une Austrália, Estados Unidos, Canadá, Reino Unido e Nova Zelândia] and the Australian Government can be confident that strong relationships with foreign counter-intelligence agencies will enable us to continue to detect and disrupt foreign espionage and interference,” he said.

Australian authorities allege the woman, who will appear in a Brisbane court this afternoon with her husband, made “unannounced” trips to Russia with and without her husband in 2023 while she was on holiday. Australian Defence Force.

According to investigators, the former serviceman instructed her husband to log into his official work account and instructed him to gain access to specific and classified military information.

The partner sent the information directly to the woman’s personal email address while she was in Russia, with the intention of forwarding it to Moscow, the same report said.

“Espionage is not a quaint concept from the Cold War. Espionage damages our economy and weakens our strategic advantage. It can have catastrophic consequences in the real world,” said ASIO director general Mike Burgess.