UK-based spy ring passed secrets to Russia for nearly three years, court told

A “sophisticated” UK-based spy ring passed secrets to Russia for nearly three years, a court has heard.

Bulgarian nationals Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, allegedly carried out surveillance on individuals and places of interest to Russia.

The spying activities allegedly included locations in London, Vienna, Valencia, Montenegro and Stuttgart, jurors have heard.

Opening the trial on Thursday, Alison Morgan KC said: “This case is about espionage activity.

“Between 2020 and 2023 these three defendants together with a number of other people spied for the benefit of Russia.

“Over a period of nearly three years they sought to gather information for the benefit of Russia, an enemy of the UK, information about various targets, both people and physical locations. Information of particular interest to the Russian state.

“Their activity caused obvious and inevitable prejudice to the safety and interests of the United Kingdom.”

Ms Morgan said the defendants were “sophisticated in their methodology” as they allegedly conducted surveillance.

They allegedly manufactured and used fake identities and deployed “advanced technology” to acquire information.

The prosecutor said they obtained imagery and compiled detailed reports on their targets for which they were paid “significant amounts of money”.

Ms Morgan said: “They all knew why they were being tasked to conduct their operations. Their activity was being undertaken for the direct or indirect benefit of Russia.”

The spy ring included two more defendants, Orlin Roussev and Biser Dzhambazov, who have pleaded guilty to espionage charges, the court was told.

It is alleged the defendants plotted with a Russian agent, “Rupert Ticz”, said to be Austrian national Jan Marsalek, to obtain information directly or indirectly useful to Russia.

Ms Morgan said they were tasked to spy on “prominent” individuals of obvious interest to Russia, often because they were dissidents who had fled their homeland for their own safety.

Activities often involved surveillance operations, following people around and finding out where they were and then reporting back to the Russian state, the court heard.

The spy ring also targeted significant locations, including an embassy and airbase in Germany, jurors heard.

Ms Morgan told jurors: “You may think that it is obvious that if a group of individuals conduct espionage activity of this type planned in the UK but for the benefit for Russia, it is damaging to our national security interests.

“You may also think that it is obvious that throughout this period Russia can properly be described as an enemy of the UK. Enemy for these purposes includes any country which represents a threat to our national security.”

Ms Morgan said what the defendants did was not in dispute, and invited jurors to consider why they were doing it, what they knew and what they intended when they passed information “back along the line”.

Roussev and Dzhambazov have admitted having a number of false identity documents for spying, a number of which were found in Ivanova’s bedroom, although she denies wrongdoing, jurors have heard.

Ms Morgan said there were six spying operations which involved “high level espionage with high levels of deceit” which were “extremely risky” for those involved.

They included getting close to their targets, filming them, and even envisaging direct contact by deploying the female defendants as a “honey trap”, as sexual bail to capture more information, jurors heard.

Ms Morgan told jurors: “It was high risk and it was highly sophisticated. The prosecution alleges that it is fanciful to suggest that any of these defendants were ignorant as to why they were doing what they were doing.”

The defendants have denied a charge of conspiracy to spy between August 30 2020 and February 8 2023.

Ivanova has denied a second charge of possession of false identity documents with improper intention under section 4 of the Identity Documents Act 2010.

At the time of the alleged offences, Ivanchev was living in Acton, west London, Ivanova was living in Harrow, north-west London, and Gaberova in Euston, north London.

The Old Bailey trial is expected to go on until February next year.