Five Bulgarians appear in court charged with spying for Russia

The three men and two women are accused of conspiring to gather information that would be useful to an enemy between August 2020 and February 2023.

The five appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court (Jordan Pettitt/PA) (PA Archive)

Five Bulgarians charged with spying for Russia have appeared in court.

The three men and two women are accused of conspiring to gather information that would be useful to an enemy between August 2020 and February this year.

Orlin Roussev, 45, of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk; Bizer Dzhambazov, 41, of Harrow, north-west London; Katrin Ivanova, 31, of the same Harrow address; Ivan Stoyanov, 31, from Greenford, west London; and Vanya Gaberova, 29, from Churchway, north-west London, are charged with conspiring 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 between August 30 2020 and February 8 2023.

The five appeared via video link at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday morning and only spoke to confirm they could hear and see the court, to state their names and dates of birth.

They were remanded into custody until their next appearance at the Old Bailey on October 13 by Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram.

They were arrested by the Metropolitan Police Counter-Terrorism Command in February under the Official Secrets Act.

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.