ATHENS, May 21 (Reuters) – A Greek court sentenced a 27-year-old Azerbaijani man to prison on espionage charges on Tuesday for monitoring a military base on the island of Crete, legal sources said on Thursday.
He has denied wrongdoing and has appealed the ruling.
The man, sentenced to seven years and one month in prison, was arrested in June last year following a surveillance operation by police and Greece’s intelligence service, on suspicion of monitoring the Souda naval base — a strategic facility for Greece, the United States and NATO.
The probe showed that the man, who had a temporary residence permit from Poland, had first arrived in Greece in January 2025 and since mid-June had been staying in a hotel room with a view of the naval and air force base in Chania, western Crete.
He was accused of collecting and transmitting state secrets and critical military information to foreign powers, including photographs and videos of military installations, police sources said. Evidence included 23 videos and nine photographs of a Greek Navy frigate which had arrived in Souda for refuelling.
“He did not intend to spy,” his lawyer, Sofia Saripanidou, told Reuters. “He took pictures of a view, where everyone has access.”
Items seized from his room included a high-resolution camera with a telephoto lens and a tripod, USB readers and data storage cards. Police also found encryption software installed on his laptop, according to the sources.
Days earlier, a British man was arrested in Cyprus on suspicion of terror-related offences and espionage. Israel accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guards of trying to attack Israeli citizens on the island. Authorities have been investigating potential links between the cases in Greece and Cyprus.
Earlier this year, Greek authorities detained a 36-year-old man at Athens’ airport on suspicion of spying on the same base, police and intelligence sources said. The U.S. aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford had visited Souda earlier in the year for resupply before sailing to the Middle East.
(Reporting by Yannis Souliotis and Renee Maltezou; Editing Chiara Rodriquez)
