A New Zealand soldier has become the country’s first-ever person convicted of espionage after admitting he tried to pass military information, including maps, access codes, and camp vulnerabilities, to an undercover officer posing as a foreign agent.
The man, reportedly linked to far-right groups and already under surveillance after the Christchurch mosque attack, also possessed extremist material, including the shooter’s video and manifesto.
The soldier, whose name has been suppressed by the court, was based at Linton Military Camp, and was taken into custody more than five years ago and kept under open arrest at home since, according to New Zealand’s 1News.
In 2020, he faced 17 charges, including four counts of espionage and possession of objectionable material.
Under New Zealand law, espionage carries a maximum 14-year sentence in a military prison.
The court described the case as being of “national significance”, with some hearings held behind closed doors earlier this year.
On Monday, at the Linton Military Camp, he formally confirmed the guilty pleas he entered in March. Due to court suppression orders, this marks the first time the media have been allowed to report his plea, according to the NZ Herald.
The soldier has also pleaded guilty to computer misuse and possessing objectionable publications.
Earlier, it was reported that the accused was involved with the far-right groups Dominion Movement and Action Zealandia from 2017 to 2019.
Pre-trial hearings faced delays from March 2022 due to security concerns over handling classified information, requiring nearly a year to secure specialised recording equipment and protocols. In 2023, the soldier unsuccessfully sought to have the charges dismissed.
The court has also suppressed the name of the foreign country involved.
In 2019, New Zealand authorities learned that a soldier was seeking to defect. In November, he met an undercover officer posing as a foreign agent, providing a handwritten letter outlining the information he could supply and a black bag containing military materials, including a weapons handbook.
He offered maps, photographs, and potential access to the Army Headquarters.
In December 2019, he handed over a red folder with telephone directories from several military camps, including Linton, Burnham, Trentham, the Defence College, and Messines.
His sentencing will be decided in the coming days, ABC News reported.
In a statement read to the court by his lawyer, Steve Winter, the soldier described Dominion Movement and Action Zealandia as providing positive support for him.
“We uplifted each other,” the statement reads, “It was okay to be us.”
“These were not terrorist groups.”
The soldier said that he was personally shocked by the 2019 mosque shootings and did not support the attack or the shooter’s objectives.
“If I heard anyone advocating this sort of thing, I would have reported them,” he said.
In his statement, he said he has moved on, expressed shame over his actions, and claimed he was not “thinking clearly” when committing the offences.
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