The federal Prosecutor’s office is investigating two Russian intelligence officers, who got Belgian nationality illegally with the help of Belgian diplomats, according to the Flemish magasine MO on Thursday. The investigation was confirmed by the Prosecutor’s office. The man (M.E) and woman (I.R) got Belgian nationality at the start of the nineties, with the help of the former counsels to Rome and Casablanca. They each claimed to have a Belgian parent. M.E claimed to have been born in Uruguay to a Belgian father and British mother, and I.R said she was born in Ecuador to a Belgian father and Ecuadorian mother.
The two Russians married in the Brussels commune of Ixelles. They then moved to Italy to continue collecting intelligence.
Following information received by State Security, an investigation into false passports was opened in 2012. The research concentrated on the Russian couple, the Casablanca consulate, and people that bribed the counsels to get false identity papers. The former counsel for Rome has since died. “We will have to wait for the end of the investigation to know who will be charged”, says Jean Thoreau, spokesman for the Prosecutor’s office. “No investigating judge has yet been assigned”.
(Source: Belga)
