Tallinn - Herman Simm, a senior Estonian intelligence official awaiting trial on treason charges for allegedly spying for Russia, may have started selling his secrets in the mid-1990s, according to media reports Thursday.

Speaking in daily newspaper Eesti Paevaleht, the former commander of the Estonian defence forces, Johannes Kert, said he suspected Simm had set out to discredit him at that time.

"A rumour was leaked to Finland that I, as the then-commander of the Estonian defence forces, could not be trusted," Kert claimed.

"It turned out that the information ... was spread in Finland by Herman Simm," he added.

Simm, who began his career at the Estonian Defence Ministry in 1995, was arrested in September on treason charges. The case is expected to come to court in the first half of 2009.

He served until 2006 as head of the security department at the Defence Ministry and had high-level access to secret information.

The Simm case has caused a sensation in Estonia, reinforcing fears that a "new Cold War" is beginning between Russia and the West.

The case is doubly significant as Simm is an ethnic Estonian.

One quarter of Estonia's population is ethnically Russian, and riots in the capital Tallinn in April 2007 following the relocation of a Soviet-era war memorial caused many Estonians to question the loyalty of Russian residents.

When it emerged that an ethnic Estonian could have been selling information to Russia, many Estonians could hardly believe their ears.

Last week German publication Der Spiegel claimed Simm had also operated as a double agent for the German intelligence service, the BND, and may have revealed the secrets of a vital NATO encryption system to Russia. (dpa)