Five Bulgarians charged with spying for Russia are accused of collecting information to help with abduction plots, a court has heard.
The three men and two women are accused of conspiring to collect information that would be useful to an enemy between August 2020 and February this year.
Bizer Dzhambazov, 41, and Katrin Ivanova, 31, were living together in Harrow in west London, while Vanya Gaberova, 29, from Churchway, in Camden was running a beauty salon called Pretty Woman.
They appeared at Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday alongside Orlin Roussev, 45, of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk and Ivan Stoyanov, 31, from Greenford, west London.
The defendants all appeared via videolink from the prisons they are being held in, for a hearing in front of Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram.
Prosecutor Kathryn Selby told the court the defendants are accused of UK-based espionage.
“All five are suspected of being part of an organised network of UK-based Bulgarian nationals conducting surveillance and other information gathering activities against several addresses and individuals on behalf of the Russian state”, she said.
The prosecutor said the defendants are accused of “assisting the Russian state in conducting hostile actions against specific targets including the potential abduction of these targets.”
They each face an identical charge of conspiring to commit an indictable or either way offence outside England and Wales in relation to offences against the state.
The court heard Roussev’s hub was used as a “hub” for the alleged spying activity, while a man “known as Jan Marsalek” is suspected of being the “tasker”.
According to the charges, they allegedly “conspired to collect information intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy for a purpose prejudicial to the safety and interest of the state.
Roussev, Dzhambazov, and Ivanova were previously charged on February 11 2023 with possession of false identity documents with improper intention under section 4 of the Identity Documents Act 2010.
All five suspects were arrested by the Metropolitan Police Counter-Terrorism Command in February under the Official Secrets Act.
They have been remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on October 13.
