37-year-old Matthew Trickett previously served in the Marines, later worked as a border guard at London’s Heathrow Airport, and since February this year at the immigration office. On Monday, May 13, he appeared in court for a preliminary hearing with two other men arrested as part of the same investigation.
The three were released on bail, but were ordered to report weekly to police, and are due to appear in court again on Friday.
He was accused of espionage. He was found dead in the park
Meanwhile, Thames Valley Police said Trickett was found dead on Sunday afternoon in a park in Maidenhead, 40 kilometers from London. Police added that they were treating his death as unexplained and appealed for people who were in the park at the time and had any information to come forward.
The other two accused are Chi Leung (Peter) Wai, 38, a dual British-Chinese border guard at Heathrow Airport, and Chung Pyu Yuen, 63, a retired Hong Kong police officer who worked at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London.
According to the charges against them, between December 20 of last year and May 2, the three “assisted a foreign intelligence service” by agreeing to “collect information, surveillance, and acts of fraud that may have significantly assisted a foreign intelligence service in carrying out related activities.” To the United Kingdom. It was confirmed to be Hong Kong intelligence services.
A day after the accusations were made, the Chinese ambassador was summoned to the British Foreign Office and told that his country’s actions against the United Kingdom, including espionage, cyber attacks and offering money for information leading to the arrest of Hong Kong citizens holding British passports abroad, were unacceptable. In response, the Chinese embassy said that the UK had “organised a series of accusations against China” and that allegations of Chinese spies and cyber attacks were “baseless and defamatory”.
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