Overview
- Authorities say the 48-year-old Belarus-born suspect was arrested on June 3 while filming a prototype at a factory that supplies drones to the French and Ukrainian armed forces.
- The Paris prosecutor opened a judicial investigation on June 5 and announced on June 19 that the man has been indicted and placed in provisional detention.
- He faces charges that include delivering information to a foreign power and association of criminals, offenses that carry penalties of up to 15 years in prison under French law.
- The DGSI reports it established that the suspect allegedly sent a video of the prototype to a contact in Russia, a finding that prompted national-level handling under a January 2026 foreign‑interference directive.
- Investigators are still probing links to the site named in reports, a possible Molotov cocktail incident reported by an unnamed source, the suspect’s reported residence in Spain, and who in Russia received the footage.