The police arrested the suspect on Wednesday in Berlin and raided his home and workplace.
German authorities said on Thursday that they had arrested an employee of the country’s foreign intelligence (BND) on suspicion of leaking state secrets to Russia. The news agencies Reuters and AFP and the foreign service of the German Broadcasting Corporation report on the matter, among others Deutsche Welle (switch to another service).
The man is suspected of treason.
– In 2022, he shared the information he got through his work with the Russian intelligence service. This information is classified as a state secret, the federal prosecutor’s office says in its press release.
Police arrested the suspect on Wednesday in Berlin, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office says. According to the BND, the suspect is in custody. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the police raided the man’s and another person’s homes and workplaces.
According to the authorities, the man is a German citizen.
Germany warned against espionage
German authorities have warned that Russia’s espionage efforts are increasing because of the war in Ukraine.
Last month, a German man received a suspended sentence for leaking information to Russian intelligence while working as a reserve officer in the German army. In October, Germany’s cyber security director Arne Schoenbohm was fired after suspicions about his connections with Russian intelligence services became public.
The German government has expelled more than 40 Russian spies in April, the country’s domestic intelligence says, according to Reuters.
Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, launched a wide-ranging internal investigation as soon as it became aware of possible treason among its own employees, the head of the BND Bruno Kahl says in a separate announcement. When the suspicions were confirmed, the BND also invited the prosecutors to join the investigation.
According to Kahl, it was necessary to proceed with the investigation very carefully, because any detail revealed to the public could give “the adversary an advantage in their intentions to harm Germany”. Because of this, the BND will not provide additional information about the case until the prosecutors have completed their own investigation.
– When talking about Russia, we are dealing with an actor whose ruthlessness and willingness to use violence must be taken into account, says Kahl.
It is the first time in eight years that a BND employee has been arrested on suspicion of treason. In the year 2014 Markus R. – was accused of leaking information to the US intelligence services. In 2016, he received an eight-year prison sentence.
Sources: Reuters, AFP, Uutiset