A Canadian woman accused of spying during her internship at SHAPE, NATO’s military headquarters in Mons, has appealed against her pre-trial detention, the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said on Thursday.
The woman, who is understood to be of Chinese origin, was arrested last week on suspicion of spying for a third country.
The chamber of indictment must rule on her appeal within two weeks. The woman was arrested on Friday and placed in pre-trial detention on suspicion of espionage and participation in a criminal organisation.
According to Le Soir, the intern’s alleged suspicious behaviour drew the attention of NATO’s internal security services during her internship.
An excessive curiosity about her colleagues, a tendency to enter areas to which she was not authorised, and claims she had accessed files outside her professional remit led to SHAPE’s internal security team first flagging the suspect.
The case was subsequently escalated to Belgium’s General Intelligence and Security Service (SGRS) and referred to federal prosecutors for a formal criminal investigation, according to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office.
