Federal Council gives green light to investigation into spying by the SRC
Keystone-SDA
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland can open spying investigations into the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service (FIS). The affair centres on an FIS cyber team and a collaboration with the controversial software company Kaspersky. Highly sensitive data allegedly flowed out – and ended up with Russian intelligence services.
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The Federal Council has approved a request to initiate such investigations. It was submitted because of a possible breach of official secrecy, possible prohibited acts carried out on behalf of a foreign state and political intelligence, the office confirmed to Swiss public radio, SRF, and the Keystone-ATS news agency.
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The Russia affair in the Swiss secret service: ‘This is espionage’
The latter two offences may be punishable by a custodial sentence of up to three years.
The request was submitted to the Federal Council by the Swiss justice ministry. The federal government has given itself more than six months to make its decision, according to SRF. At the same time, the criminal prosecution authorities last year already took precautionary measures with regard to evidence. The FIS is at the disposal of the attorney general’s office without restriction.
+ Spying game: what does the Swiss intelligence service do?
Five years ago, two Western intelligence services raised the alarm with the FIS about the illegal transmission of data to Russian intelligence services, including the GRU military intelligence service, via the Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky.
Kaspersky has already been suspected on several occasions of collaborating with the Kremlin and its secret services. Many countries have for years avoided the company with which the FIS has collaborated at state level.
The FIS supervisory authority became aware of this and filed a criminal complaint with the attorney general, alleging espionage. Considering that there was a basis for suspicion, it submitted the case to the Federal Council.
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Swiss secret service had links to more companies linked to Russia
Translated from German by DeepL/sb
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