Three Bulgarian nationals have been arrested and charged by police in a major national security investigation by police investigating breaches of official secrets law.

Bizer Dzhambazov, 41, and Katrin Ivanova, 31, both with the same address in Harrow, and Orlin Roussev, 45, of Great Yarmouth, were arrested in February and are accused of possession of false identity documents with "improper intention".

The trio were arrested by counter-terrorism detectives from the Metropolitan Police on suspicion of an offence under the Official Secrets Act 1911.

All five have been released on bail until September while the Official Secrets investigation continues.

The three will appear before the Old Bailey at a date to be fixed on charges which allege they were in possession of 34 identity documents, some of which were suspected to be false.

The BBC has reported the documents include passports and identity cards from several countries, including the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, and the Czech Republic.

It has also claimed is alleged that they were working for the Russian security services.

All three defendants last appeared at the Old Bailey on July 31. A hearing for Ivanova was held at the Old Bailey on Tuesday (August 15).

They have yet to enter pleas to the charges and are remanded in custody.

The Daily Mail has reported that according to the Met, five people were arrested in February and three of those were later charged under Section 4 of the Identity Documents Act 2010.

A Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spokesperson said: “The CPS has authorised charges against Orlin Roussev, Biser Maicimov Dzhambazov and Katrin Ivanova with possession of an identity document with improper intention, contrary to the Identity Documents Act.

“Criminal proceedings are active and they have the right to a fair trial. It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.”