The case occurred last year when the young man, who is now in custody, learned that the Initial Planning Conference would take place at the Lisbon Naval Base School in Alfeite, Almada, between 3 and 7 February.
This event was the “world’s largest exercise dedicated to robotic experimentation with unmanned systems – REP (MUS), for the year 2025,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement, adding that around 300 people participated, most of them military personnel.
With this information, the official suspect, “who made a living from theft,” decided to stay at the same hotel where the NATO military personnel participating in the conference were staying.
At that hotel, he “appropriated a computer and an iPad” belonging to NATO and the Swedish Navy, which were assigned to a NATO military officer. “Convinced that he had secret and classified material in his possession, he attempted to access and copy its contents and intended to collaborate with the Russian Federation,” added the attorney general’s office.
With the information in his possession, the young man went to the Russian embassy in Lisbon to try to sell it, but was unsuccessful.
During the investigation, the statement also reads, the official suspect even showed himself willing to collaborate with the authorities, saying that there was a criminal organisation involved in espionage and breach of judicial secrecy, of which he was a part along with eleven other people, including a Judicial Police inspector.
However, according to the evidence gathered in the investigation, this version of events did not correspond to reality and was merely a ploy used by the defendant to divert attention away from himself,” clarified the attorney general’s office.
In addition to the crime of attempted espionage, on 12 February, the 23-year-old was charged with three counts of aggravated theft, two counts of using another person’s identification or travel document, one count of making false statements, one count of child pornography, two counts of driving without a licence and eleven counts of slanderous accusation.
The young man is in custody and has been banned from making contact with others. There are two other official suspects in this case, who are accused of aggravated theft and must periodically report to the authorities with identity and residence details.
