Dutch agency prevented Russian spy from working at International Criminal Court
Dutch intelligence services said they stopped a Russian spy from attempting to use a false identity to infiltrate the International Criminal Court (ICC) which is investigating accusations of war crimes in Ukraine.
Authorities allege that an officer named Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, working for Russia’s military intelligence service GRU, was supposed to start an internship at the ICC in The Hague, using the name Viktor Muller Ferreira and claiming to be from Brazil. The ICC has also been informed of this case.
The Dutch agency deemed the situation “a potentially very high threat.”
The Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) considered the man to be “a threat to national security”, and informed the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service The intelligence officer was refused entry into the Netherlands in April and declared unacceptable. He was sent back to Brazil on the first flight out, Dutch authorities said.
“If the intelligence officer had succeeded in gaining access as an intern to the ICC, he would have been able to gather intelligence there and to look for (or recruit) sources, and arrange to have access to the ICC’s digital systems,” the Dutch agency said. “That way he would have been able to provide a significant contribution to the intelligence that the GRU is seeking. He might also have been able to influence criminal proceedings of the ICC,” the agency added.
