Gardaí arrested a Ukrainian-born Irish civil servant because they feared he was about to hand over State secrets to a hostile power, a court has heard. 

Yevgen McKeeffe was detained at Dublin Airport and has since been remanded in custody. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, court reporter Tom Tuite explained that a number of court reporting restrictions remain in place, meaning that while Mr McKeeffe can be named, his address cannot be published. 

“He had been working as a civil servant for well over a decade, but he was stopped at Dublin Airport on May 28th, attempting to leave the country carrying just over €5,500 and a one-way ticket,” he explained. 

“He was initially charged then, under theft and fraud offences, for unlawful use of a computer at his workplace; the original charge was superseded with four other allegations. 

“One of these charges was under corruption offences, because it is alleged that he received some payment from this other State, or agents from that other State.

“But he is also charged for breaching the Data Protection Act and then two counts under the Official Secrets Act for communicating information that was prejudicial to the safety of the Irish State.”

Mr McKeeffe was denied bail following his arrest in May and a subsequent application to the High Court was also rejected. 

“Gardaí believed that he was going to Turkey, where he was going to transfer and go to an onward connection to his final destination and meet what was termed as a ‘handler’ from what was described as a ‘hostile State’ and pass over further information,” Mr Tuite said. 

“It was also alleged that his workplace was examined, his home computer was examined, and information allegedly was sent in the forms of documents, pictures or videos to this handler in the foreign jurisdiction. 

“And that he'd used the Telegram app on his mobile phone to transfer or leak other information. 

“It emerged that he was believed, certainly, allegedly to have received about €250 for various items of information.”

Mr Tuite continued that the charge is “extremely rare” with few recent precedents. 

“There was one about seven or eight years ago about a person working in a sensitive Government area, leaking information to dissident Republicans,” he said. 

“But aside from that, it's very uncommon; in this case, the Director of Public Prosecutions has also directed trial and indictment, so it will leave the District Court.

“It looks like it's heading to the Circuit Court, which has much wider sentencing powers.”

Main image: Members of Gardaí on patrol in Dublin city centre. Picture by: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie.