An Intelligence Officer Abroad

The accused was a career officer in a foreign country's intelligence service, risen to deputy division director. Prosecutors said he spent years cultivating engineers at aviation companies, paying their travel costs and asking them for technical material, including details of a composite fan system used in jet engines that no rival had managed to copy. Investigators quietly took over the correspondence and posed as one of the engineers. He flew to Europe expecting a meeting, was arrested there and was sent to stand trial.