Security guards the headquarters of the French Foreign Intelligence Agency, the General Directorate of External Security (DGSE), in Paris. (4 June 2015)
French court sentenced two former agents to eight to 12 years in prison for treason Friday after they sold information to China.
Media reports, such as Agence France-Presse, reported that all court, composed of professional judge, agreed to a closed-door trial to protect witnesses and prevent the leakage of confidential information, and found them guilty of "selling information to foreign countries "," harming the basic interests of the state" and "secretly colluding with foreign countries ".
Both men are former agents of the French Foreign Security Service (DGSE), directly led by the French Ministry of Defence, the report said. Pierre-Marie H, a 69-year-old former Ministry of Defence civil servant and non-military, was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment prosecutor 15 years for treason. His wife was also sentenced to four years' imprisonment, suspended for two years.
The other defendant, Henri M, a 73-year-old professional soldier who spent part of his life in China, was sentenced to eight years and prosecutor asked for 10 years.
The case has lasted for several years. Two people were placed in temporary detention in December 2017 after being filed for investigation, when they had retired.
Henry M was appointed official representative of the French Foreign Security Service in Beijing in 1997 as the second secretary of the Embassy, but was recalled to France in 1998 because a intimate relationship. incident with a Chinese female translator in China embassy France forced the French Foreign Security Service to recall several agents in China for security reasons.
Henry M retired a few years later, returned to China in 2003, and settled in Hainan with the female translator marry,.
Pierre-Marie H was never posted abroad. He was arrest, at zurich airport with large amounts of cash after contacting a chinese intelligence officer on an indian ocean island.
prosecution said in a pre-trial statement that it was an extremely rare trial, from charges to defendants.
