Security guard at UK embassy in Berlin denies spy charges

LONDON (AP) — A security guard at the British Embassy in Berlin accused of passing information to a Russian military attache denied espionage charges Thursday in a London court. David Ballantyne Smith, 57,  appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court to face nine charges under the Official Secrets Act related to “the collection and communication of information useful to the Russian state.” The alleged offenses took place between October 2020 and August 2021, when Smith was arrested by German police at his home in Potsdam, southwest of Berlin. He is accused of attempting to communicate by letter with “General Major Sergey Chukhurov, the Russian military attache based out of the Russian Embassy, Berlin.”