Dutch Woman Sentenced in Espionage
AMSTERDAM — A 43-year-old Dutch woman was sentenced to two years in jail Friday for making copies of secret papers about North Atlantic Treaty Organization tank armor to pass to East Germany.
Ellen Tunnissen, a member of a communist fringe party, admitted making the photocopies in the patent office where she worked. She said she wanted to maintain the military balance between East and West.
Tunnissen copied about 100 pages of secret Dutch and West German papers over a period of four months. The documents, kept in an office safe, belonged to firms making armor and equipment for tanks and military vehicles.
When arrested last November in Amsterdam, she had arranged to deposit the copies in a bank safe to be collected by an East German agent, the prosecution said.
The transfer was not completed.
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