THE HAGUE: Dutch agents decided not to arrest four Russians accused of plotting a cyber-attack on the world’s chemical weapons watchdog because it was “not a criminal inquiry”, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Friday.

The Netherlands said it had immediately expelled the agents from GRU military intelligence in April for trying to hack the Organisation for the Proh­ibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague.

But the decision has come under scrutiny after the US announced the same day that the four Russians were among seven people it had indicted over a global hacking conspiracy.

“It was an investigation in the framework of the law by the intelligence and security services. It was not a criminal inquiry,” Rutte told a weekly news conference when asked why the men were not arrested.

“The priority was not just to stop this operation... but also to obtain as much information as possible on the activity of these Russian spies,” added the Dutch premier. No other countries had raised the issue, Rutte added.

The men entered the country on Russian diplomatic passports on April 10 and were caught red-handed on April 13 with a car full of electronic equipment in the Marriott Hotel next to the OPCW.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2018