{"id":960181,"date":"2026-07-26T10:33:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T10:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/960181\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T10:33:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T10:33:30","slug":"canadian-intern-at-nato-hq-in-belgium-arrested-on-suspicion-of-spying-for-third-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/960181\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian intern at NATO HQ in Belgium arrested on suspicion of spying for \u2018third country\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Public Safety Canada said the government was aware of the arrest. It did not disclose the suspect’s identity or say which “third country” she is alleged to have been spying for.Hussein Malla\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

A Canadian woman working as an intern at the operational headquarters of the NATO military alliance in Belgium was arrested Friday on suspicion of espionage.<\/p>\n

Belgium\u2019s Federal Prosecutor\u2019s Office said in a statement issued Saturday that the suspect was \u201ca Canadian national of Chinese origin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is suspected of spying on behalf of a third country and of being a member of a criminal organization,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n

Public Safety Canada said the government was aware of the arrest of a Canadian citizen employed by NATO at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, known as SHAPE. It did not disclose the suspect\u2019s identity or say which \u201cthird country\u201d she is alleged to have been spying for. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe arrest is related to an ongoing criminal investigation,\u201d the department said in a statement. <\/p>\n

As a member of the NATO alliance, Canada has military representatives based at the SHAPE command centre, located in the southern Belgian city of Mons, near the French border. Military officials at SHAPE plan and command joint strategy, tactics and operations. NATO\u2019s Cyber Security Centre is also based there. <\/p>\n

The suspect was an intern at SHAPE, although it is not known in which division she was working or how long she had been working there. <\/p>\n

Belgium\u2019s Federal Prosecutor\u2019s Office said the suspect had come to the attention of SHAPE\u2019s security services, which had reported their concerns to the country\u2019s military intelligence agency. The matter was then referred to the federal prosecutor\u2019s office, which launched an investigation.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, officers searched the suspect\u2019s home and place of work inside NATO\u2019s command centre, with support from a computer crime unit and a forensic and scientific unit, the prosecutor\u2019s office said. The suspect was arrested the next day.<\/p>\n

Col. Martin O\u2019Donnell, a SHAPE spokesperson, <\/b>said there is no indication that NATO or SHAPE operational readiness, command and control arrangements, or ongoing tasks have been adversely affected.<\/p>\n

\u201cSHAPE continues to fulfill its responsibilities without interruption,\u201d he said in an e-mail. \u201cNATO remains fully committed to protecting Allied personnel, safeguarding classified information, and maintaining the trust and security upon which the Alliance depends,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

With a report from Marieke Walsh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Public Safety Canada said the government was aware of the arrest. It did…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":960182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[2147,50,4741,80],"class_list":["post-960181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-pleasemod","tag-politics"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116985830227533259","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=960181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/960182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=960181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=960181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=960181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}