An investigative court in Madrid is investigating – under summary secrecy – two agents from the National Intelligence Center (CNI) for allegedly leaking classified information to the United States, as confirmed this Monday by the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles. The spies were arrested a few weeks ago for an alleged crime of revealing secrets, punishable by up to 12 years in prison. It is not the first case of betrayal by Spanish spies; But unlike the previous one, this time the sensitive information would have been provided to an allied country: the US intelligence services.
The legal process began in the Plaza de Castilla Courts after the CNI itself filed a complaint against its investigated agents. Once the matter was prosecuted, the spies were arrested; one of them was sent to provisional prison. The case remains under summary secrecy. Hence, the Minister of Defense did not provide further details on this matter, which the Government has wanted to handle with the utmost discretion. From the House – as the CNI headquarters is known – they suspect that the information has come to light through a leak from the court that coordinates the investigation.
In 2007, former agent Roberto Flórez, who worked at the CNI for more than five years, was arrested for offering information to Russia, as revealed in a document found in the records of his home. In that letter he demanded payment of $200,000 in exchange for information reserved for a hostile country. Flórez became the first Spaniard convicted of a crime of treason in democracy. Article 584 of the Penal Code includes the punishment of “a Spaniard who, with the purpose of favoring a foreign power, association or international organization, procures, falsifies, disables or reveals information classified as reserved or secret, likely to harm national security.” or national defense.”
Intelligence sources explain that the unusual thing about the case is that the information was being leaked to a country with which Spain collaborates very closely in the exchange of information. If it were proven that the United States had bought Spanish spies, the same sources point out, we would be facing “a very serious fact.”
