An information systems technician in the Australian Army and her partner have been charged with “an espionage-related offence” after allegedly forwarding sensitive Defence information accessed via the woman’s account to a private email.
The Australian Federal Police said the pair are Russian-born Australian citizens and accused them of taking the Defence material to share with Russian authorities.
The woman obtained citizenship in 2016 and her husband in 2020.
The Australian Federal Police allege the pair worked together to obtain the information while the soldier was on long-term leave, during which time she allegedly “undertook non-declared travel to Russia with and without the man.”
“The AFP will allege that while the man remained in Australia, the woman instructed him on how to log into her official work account and guided him to access specific information to send directly to her private email account while she was in Russia,” the police said in a statement.
“The AFP will allege the woman’s ADF account credentials were used on a number of occasions to access sensitive ADF information, with the intent to provide it to Russian authorities.”
The Federal Police allege the information accessed “related to Australian national security interests.”
Authorities said there is “no ongoing threat” from the incident, and that "no significant compromise" had been identified.
Federal Police said that charges against the pair could be expanded from a “preparing for an espionage offence” to espionage in future if a “direct evidential link to a foreign principal” emerges.
AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw said the pair’s alleged activities were investigated with “extraordinary tenacity and technique” by the counter foreign interference taskforce (CFITF), which includes the AFP, ASIO and other Commonwealth partners.
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said the case showed that “multiple countries are seeking to steal Australia’s secrets.”
“Espionage is not some quaint cold war notion,” he said.
“[It] damages our economy and degrades our strategic advantage. It can have catastrophic real-world consequences.”
