MRS OLLIER CHARGED

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27489, 25 October 1954, Page 11

MRS OLLIER CHARGED

Offence Against Security (Rec. 11 p.m.) PARIS, October 23. Mrs Rose Marie Ollier, the former French diplomat mentioned 'in the Petrov spy inquiry, was charged today with an offence against the external security of the State. She had been brought to Paris from Marseilles, where she arrived yesterday, after travelling under police guard from New Caledonia. Mrs Ollier, aged 46, an attractive widow credited with a brave record in the wartime Resistance Movement, was arrested at Noumea after disclosures at the sessions of the Royal Commission on Espionage. Vladimir Petrov, former Russian chief spy at the Soviet Embassy in Canberra, said Mr Ollier under the codename “Olga” gave him secret information about the dispatch of arms from Australia and New Zealand to the Indo-China war. Mrs Ollier was taken to La Roquette women’s prison in Paris after a two-hour interrogation at a Paris Military Court. She was also charged with failure to inform the authorities of acts of espionage of which she had knowledge. When she arrived at Marseilles on board the French liner Tahitien she wps taken in a police car to the nearby town of Avignon. From there she was taken on the night train to Paris. Wearing a dark coat, with a scarf over her tousled hair, and sunglasses, she appeared near collapse as she left the Military Court offices in Reuilly Barracks. Two police inspectors supported her as she climbed into the black prison van. Strong police forces kept away photographers and reporters. The charges against her could moan a prison sentence of from one to 10 years if she was found guilty.