Four Bulgarian nationals accused of 'defacing Holocaust memorial' after being 'exploited by Russia' go on trial
The memorial lists 3,900 people honoured for defending Jewish people during the Nazi occupation of France in the Second World War.
Four Bulgarian nationals accused of vandalising a Holocaust memorial in France with red paint are standing trial today - as prosecutors accuse Russia of orchestrating the act.
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Up to 35 red handprints were found on the memorial's Wall of the Righteous in Paris on May 13 to 14 last year.
The memorial lists 3,900 people honoured for defending Jewish people during the Nazi occupation of France in the Second World War.
Other prints were found in nearby streets around central Paris.
The vandalism may have been "orchestrated by Russian intelligence services” and is one of nine such suspected acts of foreign interference, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.
Viginum, the French authority monitoring foreign interference online, said the red handprints were exploited by "actors linked to Russia".
Three suspects are being held after being extradited from Croatia and Bulgaria.
A fourth, set to be tried in absentia, has been charged with complicity after allegedly booking accommodation and transport for the suspects.
They face up to seven years in jail if convicted.
It marks the first trial of its kind in France and is one of a string of cases such cases where a foreign power has been accused of involvement with the aim to destabilise
This also comes after three Bulgarians in the UK were convicted for their involvement in a Russian spy cell.
Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, were found guilty at the Old Bailey of spying on an "industrial scale", putting lives and national security at risk.
They engaged in a series of surveillance and intelligence operations over three years on people targeted by Russia, including investigative journalists and a US military base in Germany.
The messages included plots to kidnap and kill some of the group's targets.
The group were referred to as Despicable Me's yellow sidekicks but instead of a cartoon evil mastermind Gru, the defendants acted as spies working for the Russian intelligence service, also known as GRU.
Met counter-terrorism chief Commander Dominic Murphy told PA news agency: "This was industrial-scale espionage on behalf of Russia.
"This is one of the largest and most complex examples of a group working for a foreign state to conduct intelligence surveillance operations here in the UK."