Federal prosecutors in Manhattan revealed new evidence on Thursday against four suspected Russian agents, and cited that evidence as indication that they should be denied bail because they have a “powerful incentive to flee” and even if closely monitored, “would be able to do so.”

The four defendants, two couples from Montclair, N.J., and Yonkers, have “an ability secretly to call for help” from their Russian handlers, prosecutors said, and the Russian S.V.R., the successor agency to the Soviet K.G.B., “has every incentive to assist” them, according to court documents filed on Thursday.

“All of the defendants are practiced in the sort of systemic deception that would be necessary were they to attempt to leave the United States,” the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan wrote.

Mr. Bharara’s office revealed that one suspect, Juan Lazaro, after waiving his Miranda rights, gave a long statement to investigators after his arrest and admitted “Lazaro” was not his true name, and that the Yonkers house where he and another of the suspects lives, was paid for by the “Service,” a reference to the S.V.R. in Moscow.

Mr. Lazaro also said that his wife, Vicky Pelaez, a journalist for a Spanish-language newspaper in New York who was also charged in the case, “had delivered letters to the service on his behalf,” prosecutors said.

Mr. Lazaro, a former professor at Baruch College who has a 17-year-old son with Ms. Pelaez, told the authorities that although he “loved his son, he would not violate his loyalty to the service even for his son.”

Mr. Lazaro also “refused to provide his true name,” prosecutors added.

The government also revealed a 2009 message, written in broken English, that the S.V.R., referred to as Moscow Center, sent to the Montclair couple, who are known as Richard and Cynthia Murphy.

“The only goal and task of our service and of all of us is security of our country,” the message said. “All our activities are subjected to this goal.

“Only for reaching this goal were you dispatched to U.S., settled down there, gained legal status and were expected to start striking up useful acquaintances, broadening circle of your well placed connections, gaining information and eventually recruiting sources.”

The prosecutors described the additional evidence in a nine-page letter filed with a federal magistrate judge who is expected to hear arguments for bail by the two couples later today in Federal District Court.

The judge, Ronald L. Ellis, denied bail on Monday for a fifth defendant, Anna Chapman, on the grounds that she might flee.

In their letter, the prosecutors cited the case of another defendant, Christopher R. Metsos, who was taken into custody in Cyprus this week and released on bail, only to disappear within 24 hours, they noted.

“That looms very large here,” the prosecutors wrote. “There is little need here for speculation as to what will happen if the defendants are permitted to walk out of the court,” they said, adding, “As Metsos did, they will flee.”

The four suspects were among nine defendants in the Russian spy case who were to make court appearances on Thursday. In Boston, Donald Heathfield and his wife, Tracey Lee Ann Foley, of Cambridge, Mass., appeared in federal court for a detention hearing; at their new lawyers’ request, they were granted a delay until July 16.

The couple’s sons, 20 and 16, were at the courthouse, and waved to their parents.

Hearings also were scheduled in Alexandria, Va., for Mikhail Semenko, Michael Zottoli and Patricia Mills.

(Source: NY Times)