For years, he was one of the trusted men of the German secret services. Former intelligence agent Carsten L. is now on trial for “high treason” alongside his alleged accomplice, in a trial which opens this Wednesday, December 13 at the Berlin court. He is accused of having sold himself to the Russian FSB on several occasions since the start of the war in Ukraine.
This appearance, described by the German weekly Der Spiegel “the biggest espionage trial” in the country in decades, opens against the still tense backdrop of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A most ordinary encounter
The two men have been placed in pre-trial detention since their arrest: in December 2022 for one, January 2023 for the other. Carsten L., 53, an agent of the BND (the German federal intelligence services) and his alleged accomplice, Arthur E., a 32-year-old entrepreneur, are accused of having transmitted to the Russian security service, the FSB, documents and information classified as secret twice during the fall of 2022. The two accused, who met in May 2021, now risk between five years in prison and life imprisonment.
According to the Der Spiegel, Carsten L. and Arthur E. first get to know each other over beers at a party in Bavaria, then become friends as former members of the Bundeswehr (the federal army). The BND agent convinces the diamond merchant to work as an informant for the German secret service. Informal meetings are increasing: an interview with BND agents even ends in one of the largest brothels in Germany (Artemis, in Berlin), again according to the same source.
Nearly a million euros of information, notably on Wagner
Contact between FSB agents and Arthur E. is then established through a Russian entrepreneur. This man will later organize the meetings and book Arthur E.’s flights between Moscow and Germany. At the heart of the war, the German agent Carsten L. ends up printing or photographing, under the influence of his accomplice, confidential documents from the BND database to communicate them to Arthur E., who transmits them to his tour to Moscow, according to the indictment.
According to Der Spiegel, these documents allowed the Russians to understand that the BND was clandestinely consulting the messages exchanged by Wagner’s mercenaries in Ukraine, thanks to the hacking by Western secret services of their internal messaging system, called “KOD”. Reading the exchanges on this messaging system allowed Western spy services to have detailed information on the losses, tactics and objectives of Russian fighters. This information is all the more valuable given that at the time, this paramilitary group played a significant role in the fighting in Ukraine, until the armed rebellion of its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, on June 23, 2023, changed the situation. .
For their services, Carsten L. and Arthur E. were paid by the FSB to the tune of “at least 450,000 euros” for the first, and “at least 400,000 euros” for the second, the document specifies. Arthur E. went to collect these cash sums himself in Moscow in November 2022. And when he returned to Germany, Carsten L. ensured that he “clandestly passed security checks at the airport, under the pretext of professional reasons”.
An audience under high tension
A year later, the hearing “is taking place under increased security conditions” assures the court, mainly “since confidential information from the BND would have been transmitted to a foreign secret service”. Initially, this Wednesday, the session will be devoted to reading the indictment in front of the two accused. According to the court’s schedule, which has scheduled 51 hearings, the verdict is not expected before mid-July 2024. “It will certainly be a long procedure,” said the court spokeswoman.
Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, German security services have constantly warned against Russian espionage activities in Germany, which have taken on a scale rarely equaled in recent years.