Swiss intelligence worker stole documents: defence

A Swiss intelligence agency employee stole documents earlier this year, but the theft was detected immediately and no information leaked to a third party, the defence department said Thursday.

"Data was stolen internally in May, but due to our safety procedures we detected it right away," Sonja Margelist, a spokeswoman for the Swiss defence department told AFP.

"There was no damage," she insisted.

The agency refused to reveal any information about the employee or the stolen documents.

According to the Le Temps daily, however, the thief was a 43-year-old technician and he had stolen millions of pages worth of data, which were found in his home.

The paper reported that, due to security concerns, regular VBS employees are barred from copying data using their work computers, but that restriction does not apply to the agency's chief technicians.

VBS said it has brought criminal charges against the employee, who reportedly spent six weeks in preventive detention, and a probe was launched by Switzerland's chief prosecutor.