According to prosecutors, the defendant offered to lead police investigators to the “agents” he claimed had hired him to steal the goods. But just as the meeting with his alleged handlers was due to take place, the man escaped. Hours later he was seen arriving at the Russian Embassy in Lisbon, where he allegedly tried to sell what was on the devices to an embassy employee. The man “was unsuccessful in achieving this goal,” prosecutors noted, and coughed up the missing devices when police detained him shortly thereafter.
Under interrogation, the man claimed to belong to “a criminal organization dedicated to acts of espionage and violation of state secrets,” and named 11 individuals — among them a police inspector — as members of the spy ring. But a yearlong criminal probe has now concluded the alleged espionage network doesn’t exist, and that the defendant invented it to “divert the focus of the investigation” from himself.
In addition to attempted espionage, prosecutors accused the defendant of aggravated theft, making false statements and possession of child pornography; if convicted he faces 3 to 10 years in prison. Two other men have been accused of aiding in the theft but haven’t been charged with espionage.