British intelligence

Russia's spy chief on May 18 denied responsibility for the SolarWinds cyber attack but said he was "flattered" by the accusations from the United States and Britain that Russian foreign intelligence was behind such a sophisticated hack.

Turkish cult leader and controversial Islamic author Adnan Oktar was sentenced to more than 1,074 years in prison on Jan. 11, Demirören News Agency said.

Oktar, also known as Harun Yahya, had been tried with 235 other defendants in an Istanbul court.

The verdict and sentence came after a previous trial that began in September 2019 after Oktar was arrested in July 2018.

British best-selling author David Cornwell, better known as John le Carre whose Cold War-era spy novels transformed the espionage genre, died over the weekend, his literary agent said. He was 89 years old.

His family said le Carre died Saturday night in Cornwall, Britain, from pneumonia after a short battle with the illness.

"Novosti" notes that this idea has been present for a long time, but that it has been "reactivated" after the British government released confidential documents confirming that the Bosnian Serb attack on July 1995 was provoked by Bosniak forces and that the leaderships of Republika Srpska and Serbia did not organize or order crimes.

Turkish authorities have slapped a travel ban on the wife of a former British intelligence officer who was found dead in Istanbul, judicial sources said on Nov. 14.

James Gustaf Edward Le Mesurier was thinking of committing a suicide 15 days before his death, the wife of former British intelligence officer told police in her statement.

Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia had seemingly arrested former military intelligence officer Sergei Viktorovich Skripal in 2004 for acting as an agent for the British intelligence service. Moscow claimed that he had revealed his identity to the British foreign intelligence service - MI6 - in exchange of pecuniary and other benefits.

Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, who was convicted by Russia of betraying agents to British intelligence, was critically ill on March 5 after exposure to an unidentified substance in Britain, two sources close to the investigation told Reuters.

Theresa May will pledge to keep Britain closely tied to the EU for security reasons this week as she launches a final push to settle the UK's blueprint for Brexit, The Sunday Times reported.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met on Friday with British Director of the Intelligence Service MI6 Alex Younger, with whom he discussed cooperation in the intelligence service of the two countries.

Younger is in an official visit to the Republic of Serbia, writes Serbian daily "Vecernje Novosti".