Defiant spy suspect 'admitted alias'

Lazaro's admission – and defiance – was revealed by federal prosecutors arguing against bail for him, his wife and another couple with children.

The US government claims those defendants and seven others were part of a spy ring on assignment to infiltrate America's cities and suburbs for the Russian intelligence service.

Their cover was so deep, "there is no inkling at all that their children who they live with have any idea their parents are Russian agents", assistant US attorney Michael Farbiarz told US magistrate Judge Ronald L Ellis. Mr Farbiarz warned that a powerful and sophisticated network of US-based Russian agents was eager to help defendants in the spy ring flee the country if they were released on bail.

"There are a lot of Russian government officials in the United States who are actively assisting this conspiracy," he said.

The former husband of alleged Russian spy Anna Chapman has spoken of his suspicions that she was being "conditioned" by shadowy contacts during their marriage. The flame-haired 28-year-old is one of the 11 accused.

Alex Chapman, 30, from Bournemouth, Dorset, was married to the Russian, maiden name Kushchenko, for four years before they divorced in 2006.

Trainee psychiatrist Mr Chapman, who said he was quizzed by a Security Service officer on Wednesday about his relationship with Chapman, said his ex-wife's personality unexpectedly changed during their time together.

He explained: "There was such a dramatic change in the way she thought and the way she went about things, I felt I hardly knew her any more.

"It was like someone having a mid-life crisis, but in their 20s. She would arrange to go out but when I said I would join her she told me not to bother because they would all be speaking Russian. She was adamant I wasn't to meet them.

"She had never been materialistic during the years we were together, but in 2005 and 2006 after she started having these meetings with people she referred to as 'Russian friends'. She was transformed into someone with access to a lot of money, boasting about all the influential people she was meeting."

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said it is looking into Ms Chapman's connections to Britain.

The US judge also ruled that two defendants, Cynthia and Richard Murphy, should remain in custody because there was no other way to guarantee they would not flee since it is unclear who they really are.

Mr Farbiarz said the evidence against the defendants continued to mount and the case was solid. "Judge, this is a case where the evidence is extraordinarily strong," Mr Farbiarz said. "Prosecutors don't get cases like this very often."

Police on the island nation of Cyprus searched airports, ports and yacht marinas to find a man who had been going by the name Christopher Metsos, who disappeared after a judge there freed him on bail.

Metsos failed to show up on Wednesday for a required meeting with police. He was charged by US authorities with supplying funds to the other members of the spy ring.

A spokesman for the US Embassy in Cyprus denied local media reports that Metsos was in US custody at the embassy compound, and the Russian Foreign Ministry said it had no reason to believe Metsos was in Russia.