LONDON (Reuters) – Three Bulgarians were found guilty in a London court on Friday of being part of a Russian spy unit run by Wirecard fugitive Jan Marsalek to carry out surveillance for the Kremlin on a U.S. military base and individuals targeted by Moscow.

Katrin Ivanova, 43, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, were convicted at London’s Old Bailey court, charged with conspiracy to gather information useful to an enemy between August 2020 and February 2023, which they denied.

Prosecutors said the trio – along with Orlin Roussev and Bizer Dzhambazov, who had admitted being part of the conspiracy before the trial started – carried out surveillance on journalists and planned to stage a fake protest outside the Kazakh embassy in London.

(Reporting by Michael Holden and Sam Tobin)