"I swear to be loyal to the Italian Republic, to observe its Constitution and laws and to fulfill with discipline and honor all the duties of my state for the defense of the homeland and the safeguarding of free institutions ". Thus states the article 575 of the Military Order Code, referring to the Oath of men and women with stars.
(by Andrea Pinto) So the frigate captain swore at the beginning of his career Walter Biot, the naval officer who jumped to the news of these days for the serious and infamous story that involved him in a bad story of espionage perpetrated by the Russian services to the detriment of Italy. The story takes on unprecedented gravity since documents, information and high-ranking Italian and NATO secrecy data have been compromised and released to a foreign country that is likely not an ally. Reading the newspapers makes you smile when you want to belittle the affair by derubricating it to a not serious affair because the information released is not compromising for the security of the State.. Even worse when you want to pass the story that his family had economic problems due to Covid (wife who lost her job) or that one of the children has serious health problems. Despite all the understanding and closeness to Biot, unfortunately this time the matter is terribly serious. The misinformation in this regard is almost total. Not everyone knows, in fact, that the matter of classified information is so sensitive that it is personally responsible for it President of the Council of Ministers which is theNational safety authority (ANS). A role that the premier plays through the Central Office for secrecy (UCSe), set up within the DIS (Department of Information for Security). The Dis oversees our two intelligence and internal security agencies, AISI and external, AISE.
The rankings of secrecy
La secrecy ranking is the indicator of the level of secrecy attributed at national level to a given information. They are configured as classified documents any material or immaterial, analog or digital medium containing classified information and, therefore, subjected to physical, logical and technical protection measures from the moment of its origin to that of its destruction or declassification. There are four national rankings: top secret, secret, highly confidential and confidential.
If the perpetrator of having disclosed classified information has acted for the purpose of political or military espionage, the penalty is imprisonment of not less than fifteen years up to life imprisonment, under certain specific conditions.
The Defense of Captain Biot
The Biot he said to his lawyer Robert DeVita, during the validation hearing where he also availed himself of the right not to answer, that "it is information of very low value that has never jeopardized national security in any way". The lawyer De Vita is also convinced of this: "The facts are of minimal importance ".
The accusation of the Gip
The gip, which defines Biot: "An extremely dangerous and professional subject in acting. Able, for example, to insert the SD card in the medicine leaflet, a symptom of a criminal depth typical of those who have no qualms in betraying the trust of the institution to which they belong.
The origin of the suspicions in the Defense Staff
The precautionary custody order signed by the judge of Rome he accuses the officer of having disclosed high-ranking documents (highly confidential and secret with NATO qualification) on IT support to a foreign nation, Russia. The suspicions about the officer's activity date back to 5 months ago when his colleagues noticed some strange behavior of the Biot, he was often very nervous with visible mood swings. The Navy officer was employed in the beating heart of the Defense General Staff, the third department - Military Policy and Planning. The flagship department of the maximum summit of the Italian Defense where the national strategic concept, take care of the international relations and where all the operational needs of the Italian armed forces pass including the development of new weapon systems. Naturally in this context most of the documents are of high and very high ranking / qualification. Documents for which dedicated computers disconnected from the normal internet network are used and for which, in some cases, complex encryption systems are also used. The disclosure "in clear" of classified files, extrapolated from these particular computers, could also have compromised the network of classified PCs at national level. In the order of the judge of Rome it is specified that the frigate captain for several years it dealt with managing information flows covered by secrecy and preordained for the security of the State, relating to the projection of all the Italian defense structures in foreign operational theaters with particular regard to NATO, EU and UN operations. War operations, deployment of contingents, lists of officers and non-commissioned officers.
The investigative activity that led to the arrest
The unfaithful frigate captain had an enormous amount of classified information available on his PC every day. Just from that computer, as Corsera recounts, he extracted the precious information. Sitting in front of the computer with a smartphone, he took dozens of photographs a day. The smartphone sd card was then placed in a medicine box. The sequence of the activity was resumed on 25 March by a camera placed by the Carabinieri del Ros in his office at the General Staff. The same sd card was found on March 30 on a Dmitry Ostroukhov, the Moscow diplomat who had hired him and paid 5.000 euros to get the secret papers delivered. In all, 181 photos immortalize most of the “highly confidential” documents of which 47 are classified as “Secret Born”. The highly reserved have to do with the communications of our military contingents abroad, with their location on the ground, with their requests for equipment, with technology and logistics. The 47 documents classified as a NATO Secret deal with scenario analyzes, with the evolution of the European defense model, but also with the planning of the exercises of the allied forces. The counter-espionage specialists of Aisi, the Internal Security Agency, warn that there is a suspicious interest in Ostroukhov's behavior. And they begin to monitor it. They discover that he always meets Biot in the same way. He takes the subway to EUR, gets off and gets on a bus, arrives in Spinaceto where the Italian contact is waiting for him. He takes a few turns on foot to check that he is not being followed, then gets into Biot's car and together they stop in a supermarket parking lot. However, he does not know that bugs and cameras have been placed in the Italian officer's car.
The Carabinieri del Ros attended the meeting, immediately after the exchange they stopped the Russian and the Italian. Ostroukhov has the card with the pictures. There are 5.000 euros in Biot's briefcase.
Some details of the order of the investigating judge
The Russian officer had given Biot a cell phone that he could only use for direct contact. Biot had a total of four smartphones available, so much so that the judge highlights the possibility that he could repeat the crime from the number of computers and smartphones in his possession, demonstrating that it was not an isolated and sporadic activity. The order specifies: "The executive methods and the nature of the affair clearly show the extreme danger of the subject given the professionalism demonstrated in carrying out the aforementioned actions that can be inferred from the numerous devices used, the timing and the measures adopted ".
"The appointments were pre-arranged, tacitly and therefore not agreed by telephone". These elements, says the judge, "they are symptomatic of the criminal depth of the suspect who among other things did not place any scruple in betraying the trust of the institution to which he belongs for the sole purpose of obtaining profits of an economic nature ".
No cross-examination in court
In the face of the heavy accusations contained in the order of the Gip of the Court of Rome, there is no contradiction that holds up in any courtroom. If the documents to be exchanged are classified as highly confidential and secret, the narrative according to which it is information of very low value that has never jeopardized national security in any way, cannot be taken into consideration.