German authorities arrest 3 people on suspicion of espionage

BERLIN

German authorities arrested three people on suspicion of espionage offenses, prosecutors announced on Friday.

The suspects, who were identified as Ukrainian national Robert A., Armenian national Vardges I., and Russian national Arman S., were arrested in the central city of Frankfurt.

The three men were linked to a foreign secret service, the Federal Prosecutor's Office said in a statement, without specifying which country’s intelligence agency they were working for.

“The three accused were traveling inside Germany to collect information on a Ukrainian person on behalf of a foreign secret service. To do this, they scouted out a cafe in Frankfurt am Main on June 19, where the target person was supposed to be,” the prosecutors said.

The Federal Court of Justice ordered the pre-trial detention of the three men on Thursday, according to the statement.