Canada has expelled four Russian diplomats following the arrest last weekend of a Canadian soldier charged with leaking secrets to a foreign entity, a newspaper reported Friday. Canada's Globe and Mail said the four diplomats had been removed from the list of envoys officially recognised by Canada, while the CBC news service said at least some of them had left the country over the spying case.
"As this matter relates to national security and is before the courts, we have no further comment," said Joseph Lavoie, spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. In Moscow, the Russian foreign ministry denied the reports. "We are surprised by reports in the Canadian press about the expulsion of Russian diplomats since they left the country in 2011 after completing their postings," the Russian foreign ministry said on its official Twitter blog.
The Globe and Mail also cited a Russian embassy official as saying that any departures were part of routine staff rotations and unrelated to the spy case. Jeffrey Paul Delisle, 40, has been accused of communicating over the past five years "with a foreign entity information that the government of Canada is taking measures to safeguard," court documents revealed Monday.
The charges were laid out under the Security of Information Act. Delisle also faces a breach of trust charge under the Criminal Code. The offences allegedly occurred in the capital Ottawa, Halifax and in towns in Ontario and Nova Scotia provinces, the court documents said. They did not however reveal his rank or details about the information leak. Convictions under the security act carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.
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