2 Russians, 1 Ukrainian face espionage charges in Albania

By LLAZAR SEMINI
Associated Press

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — An Albanian court has ordered two Russians and a Ukrainian to remain in custody while authorities conduct an espionage investigation into the suspects’ activities at a former military weapons manufacturing plant. A judge ruled Wednesday in favor of prosecutors who requested that the trio be kept in detention over accusations of “securing secret information of military or any other character in order to be supplied to a foreign power.” But the judge dropped another more serious charge of actually providing any of the information they collected to a foreign government. The three suspects denied the charge of espionage. It wasn’t immediately clear when a trial would be held. They face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.