By Charlotte Van Campenhout
BRUSSELS, July 28 (Reuters) – A Canadian woman of Chinese origin accused of spying while working as an intern at NATO’s military headquarters in Belgium will remain in pretrial custody for another month, a spokesperson for the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office said on Tuesday.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office declined to give further details about the woman, who is suspected of espionage on behalf of a third country and of membership in a criminal organisation.
The prosecutor’s spokesperson added that the suspect now has 24 hours to lodge an appeal.
The woman worked as an intern at NATO’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, or SHAPE, in the Belgian city of Mons.
A security source said the woman, identified as Claire Z, is in her 30s and not a student. The source said the woman worked at SHAPE’s IT department. The source also said the woman had been close to completing her internship, prompting authorities to accelerate the investigation.
Neither NATO nor Belgian authorities have specified what the suspect’s work at NATO involved.
Responsibility for conducting security checks on interns lies with their countries of origin, which in this case was Canada.
The Canadian government did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree said during a press briefing on Monday that Canada “will continue to investigate the processes we have and the security screening”.
“In this particular case, I think it’s important to get to the bottom of what happened,” Anandasangaree said.
SHAPE is NATO’s top military headquarters, the base of Allied Command Operations, which is responsible for planning and carrying out all operations of the 32-member transatlantic security alliance.
The suspect had come to the attention of SHAPE’s security services, which reported her to Belgian intelligence officials after observing her behaviour, according to the prosecutor’s statement.
A SHAPE spokesperson said there is no indication that NATO or SHAPE operational readiness, command and control arrangements or ongoing tasks have been affected.
(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout, additional reporting by Andrew Gray in Brussels, Maria Cheng in Ottawa; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Will Dunham)
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