The Canadian intern charged with espionage at NATO headquarters in Belgium was found in April near the office of the alliance\u2019s supreme commander after a fire alarm was pulled by a suspected accomplice, a Belgian source familiar with the case told The Globe and Mail. <\/p>\n
The intern\u2019s unexpected appearance there triggered an investigation into her activities by the counterintelligence service of NATO\u2019s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, known as SHAPE. <\/p>\n
It reported its concerns to Belgian military intelligence. In July, she was arrested by Belgian police and faces espionage charges on suspicion of spying for a third country.<\/p>\n
What we know so far about the Canadian NATO intern accused of spying for China<\/a><\/p>\n Biwei Zhang (also known as Claire Zhang) is a former Canadian federal public servant who took an internship at SHAPE in Mons, Belgium, last year. <\/p>\n Authorities in Belgium have not publicly named the country that Ms. Zhang is suspected of spying on behalf of, but two Canadian national-security sources have previously told The Globe and Mail that Belgian prosecutors have accused her of working on behalf of China.<\/p>\n On April 21 this year, the intern, an IT specialist, was found near the building of U.S. General Alexus Grynkewich, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, as an evacuation of SHAPE\u2019s personnel took place after the triggering of a fire alarm. <\/p>\n Ms. Zhang, a naturalized Canadian of Chinese origin, had already come to the attention of SHAPE\u2019s counterintelligence service after asking colleagues questions about the consequences of security protocol breaches. <\/p>\n The Belgian source told The Globe on Friday that the investigation into Ms. Zhang, who is in pretrial detention in Belgium, is probing whether she was aided by accomplices both inside and outside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. <\/p>\n The fire alarm is believed by investigators to have been triggered by someone other than Ms. Zhang, but they have not been identified, the source said. And on the day that it was triggered, according to the source, there was some suspicious activity in the access-control system of the building where the supreme NATO commander works. <\/p>\n The Globe is not naming the Belgian source, who is not authorized publicly to discuss the investigation that led to Ms. Zhang\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n They said that after she was arrested and incarcerated, a number of passwords to her social-media accounts were remotely changed. Her apartment in Mons was also broken into while she was behind bars, the source said, sparking questions about whether material that could relate to her case was being searched for.<\/p>\n On July 23, the day before her arrest, Belgian officers searched both Ms. Zhang\u2019s home in Belgium and place of work inside NATO\u2019s command centre, with support from a computer crime unit and a forensic and scientific unit, the Belgian prosecutor\u2019s office said after her arrest. <\/p>\n A Belgian judge on Monday denied her appeal for release from prison. The Chamber of Indictments decided to extend her pretrial detention<\/a> by a month. <\/p>\n The Belgian source said that there is concern among those working on the investigation that if granted bail, Ms. Zhang could flee the country or try to remove or tamper with evidence material to her case. <\/p>\n Ms. Zhang is being represented by highly rated Belgian lawyer Sven Mary. Mr. Mary has defended a number of notorious clients including Michel Leli\u00e8vre, an accomplice of Belgian serial killer Marc Dutroux, and Salah Abdeslam, the sole surviving member of the group that carried out the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris in which 130 people were killed and more than 400 injured.<\/p>\n Mr. Mary declined a request to comment. <\/p>\n Belgium\u2019s Federal Prosecutor\u2019s Office, which is leading the investigation, said it could not comment on matters relating to the case, adding that it is difficult to predict how long the judicial investigation will take. <\/p>\n \u201cThe investigation is still actively ongoing and is aimed at further establishing the relevant facts and circumstances,\u201d said spokesperson Yasmina Vanoverschelde in a statement. \u201cAt present, there is therefore no indication as to when or whether the case may proceed to trial.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDepending on the nature and complexity of the case, an investigation may take several months or, in some cases, several years,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is working with Belgian authorities on the case. <\/p>\n In a statement, CSIS spokesperson Eric Balsam said, \u201cas the Prime Minister has shared, we are directly supporting our Belgian counterparts in support of the ongoing legal process in Brussels.\u201d <\/p>\n Some of those involved in the investigation were surprised, according to the source, that Ms. Zhang was given security clearance by the Canadian government before starting her internship at NATO headquarters in Mons, near the French border. They said her background would likely have raised a number of red flags with security experts in Belgium. <\/p>\n In Canada\u2019s Parliament last month, the Commons public safety and national security committee launched an inquiry into vetting of public officials, after MPs expressed concern about how Ms. Zhang was cleared by Ottawa to work at NATO headquarters. <\/p>\n