UK ‘China spying’ suspects told to expect trial next year

Two men, including a former parliamentary researcher, will face trial in London next year on charges of spying for China, a judge said on Friday.

Christopher Cash, 29, and Christopher Berry, 32, were charged last month under the UK’s counter-espionage Official Secrets Act.

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They made their first appearance at the Old Bailey Central Criminal Court in London on Friday, where judge Jeremy Baker told them they would go on trial “in the spring or summer of next year”.

No firm date was set for the case. Neither man entered a plea and both spoke only to confirm their personal details.

They were released on conditional bail and a further preliminary hearing will take place at the same court on October 4.

Cash previously worked at the UK parliament as a researcher, where he had contact with senior Conservative members of parliament.

He is accused of having “obtained, collected, recorded, published or communicated to any other person articles, notes, documents or information which were calculated to be, might be, or were intended to be, directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy”.

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He is alleged to have committed the offence between January 2022 and February last year.

Berry, who held various teaching posts in China from 2015, is accused of the same offence between December 2021 and February 2023.

The charges were announced on the same day that prosecutors in Germany arrested three German nationals on suspicion of sharing information on maritime technology with Beijing.

The authorities in Beijing have dismissed both as an attempt to “smear and suppress” China.

© Agence France-Presse