Pa-in-law defends Russian spy, says she was no ‘Mata Hari’

LONDON - The father-in-law of alleged Russian spy Anna Chapman has defended her, claiming that she was “not some Mata Hari”. evin Chapman, a 56-year-old independent mortgage adviser, said he could not believe his son Alex had been targeted for a British passport, insisting that he and Anna were in love.

“I’m convinced it wasn’t a honey-trap,” he told The Daily Mail.

He added: “They were so much in love. It just doesn’t add up.”

“If there is any grain of truth in all of this, then I think Anna was either set up or seduced into something because of the glamour. I feel very sorry for her. She must be feeling very frightened right now,” The Telegraph quoted him, as saying.

Chapman, whose son married Anna in 2002, added: “If she was being groomed by the KGB, you would have thought they would have set her up a bit better… they didn’t give her a very good expense account.”

He spoke as his son disclosed a series of emails she sent him weeks before her arrest, describing her regrets over the life she had chosen. (ANI)