MONTREAL - An alleged Russian spy is believed to have lived in Canada under a false identity for more than a decade while working for an elite intelligence agency, according to a summary of the evidence that led to his arrest.
The summary was released Tuesday by a Federal Court of Canada judge who is scheduled to hear arguments today in the deportation case involving a man identified only by his fictitious name, Paul William Hampel.
According to the summary: ''The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has reasonable grounds to believe that the foreign national alleging to be (Hampel) is a member of the Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki (SVR), the Foreign Intelligence Service component of the Russian Intelligence Services (RIS).''
CSIS labels such spies as ''SVR illegals'' and describes them as ''highly trained intelligence officers sent abroad to live without the legal cover of an embassy or other government entity that would give them diplomatic immunity in case of arrest.''
Hampel was arrested on Nov. 14 at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Dorval, Que., as he was preparing to leave the country. On Nov. 9, two federal ministers signed a security certificate that alleges Hampel violated specific sections of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act by engaging in an act of espionage.
Justice Pierre Blais, the judge assigned to hear the case in Montreal, reviewed the evidence used to produce the security certificate. The summary he released is only part of the evidence.
It contains few details but includes a description of what Hampel was carrying when he was arrested, including a shortwave radio, two digital cameras, the equivalent of $7,800 Canadian in five different currencies, three cellular phones and five SIM cards, the computer chips where cell phone data is stored. Some of the SIM cards were password protected.
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