Former R.A.F. man on spy charge

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32565, 26 March 1971, Page 9

Former R.A.F. man on spy charge

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) DONCASTER, March 25.

In a wood not far from Prague, a Royal Air Force sergeant handed over secret information about Britain’s radar defences, a Court was told yesterday.

Waiting in the wood to receive the information were agents of the Czechoslovak intelligence service; what they got, the Court heard, was a description of radar jamming devices being carried by British nucleur bombers. The accused was 42-year-old Nicholas Prager, a former Royal Air Force man who until his arrest was working as a computer engineer for a company in northern England. The Court was told that while he was still in the Royal Air Force in 1961, Prager photographed a secret radar manual and passed the pictures on to Czechoslovak intelligence. Later that year he went to Czechoslovakia and, in a

wood 20 miles from Prague, handed over other details of the radar.

Prager himself was bom of Czech parents in Vienna, the prosecution said. His father became a clerk in the British Embassy in Prague and in 1948 the father obtained British citizenship. This also applied to Prager himself. He came to Britain in 1949 and joined the Royal Air Force. In the two years before 1961, Prager worked as a radar technician, said the prosecuting counsel, Mr Donald Herrod.

In plain language, Mr Herrod told the Magistrates, Prager was accused of spying for Czechoslovakia. After leaving the Air Force, Prager joined a . computer firm and he was sent to Czechoslovakia on the strength of his language qualification, the Court was told. Late last year he wrote to

the British Foreign Office asking for a job in a British Embassy or Consulate. The letter was never posted but was found by police when he returned to Britain. The Court was told that last January, Prager approached another Czechoslovak intelligence agent to arrange to transmit further information.