LONDON: An American Army officer who was arrested in the United Kingdom on suspicion of spying for Russia had not handed over any information to Moscow and he is expected to be charged in Britain in the coming days, a US official said Thursday.
After the British charges are filed against Lt. Col. Brandon Tyner, expected on Sunday or Monday, the intention is then to prosecute him under the US military justice system, the official said. No information made it into Russian hands, the official said.
A second US official also confirmed Tyner’s name and said he had been previously deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq and Qatar. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters.
Tyner was a senior human resources officer and had been assigned to a NATO unit at a base near Gloucester, England. He was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service and obtaining or disclosing protected information.
The Metropolitan Police announced the arrest this week and said its counterterror forces worked closely with the FBI and US military.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that Russia has any connection to the US officer.
“This arrest does not concern us in any way. We don’t know what it’s connected to,” Peskov told journalists on Wednesday, according to Russian news services.
