Germany arrests Armenian national on suspicion of spying
Three men have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of trying to collect information on a person from Ukraine for a foreign intelligence agency, prosecutors said Friday.
The suspects were arrested in Frankfurt on Wednesday, federal prosecutors said in a statement. They were identified as Robert A., a Ukrainian citizen; Vardges I., an Armenian national; and Arman S., a Russian citizen. Their full names weren’t released in line with German privacy rules, AP reported.
A judge on Thursday ordered them kept in custody pending a possible indictment for working for a foreign secret service. In their statement, prosecutors didn’t specify what country’s intelligence agency the three are alleged to have spied for.
They said that the suspects were tasked with gathering information on a person from Ukraine in Germany, whom they didn’t identify. To that end, the trio on Wednesday allegedly scouted out a cafe in Frankfurt where that person was thought to be.
Shamshyan.com reports that the arrested Armenian national is a reputed crime figure in Yerevan known as “Vardgesik of Monument”.