The federal prosecutor’s office has had an employee of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) arrested on suspicion of treason. He would have passed information to a Russian intelligence service this year, the authority said in Karlsruhe on Thursday.
The contents are a state secret. The German was arrested the day before in Berlin. In addition, the apartment and workplace of the suspect and another person were searched.
The BND announced in Berlin that the suspect was brought before the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice on Thursday. The suspect is now in custody. In addition, two BND buildings were searched.
Immediate investigations
After learning of a potentially suspicious case within its own ranks as part of its intelligence work, the agency immediately launched extensive internal investigations, BND president Bruno Kahl said. When they confirmed the suspicion, the federal attorney was immediately summoned. “We are working closely and in confidence with the investigating authorities to thoroughly clarify the matter,” said Kahl.
In view of the ongoing investigations, the BND will not comment publicly on further details of the case until further notice, Kahl stressed. “Restraint and discretion are very important in this particular case.” In Russia, on the other hand, we are dealing with an actor “whose unscrupulousness and willingness to use violence we must reckon with”, the BND president added.
The reason for these statements could be the concern about possible dangers for contacts and informants of the German secret service in Russia, who could have been betrayed by the suspected spy in the ranks of the BND.
Kahl emphasized that every detail of the trial made public “constitutes an advantage of this adversary with the intent to harm Germany.” The success of the investigation therefore depends in this case on “minimum public disclosure until the Attorney General has completed his investigation”.
Last case from 2014
A so-called mole – a double agent with the BND – was last exposed in 2014. Two years later, the man was sentenced to eight years in prison by the Munich Higher Regional Court for years of espionage, mainly for the American secret service CIA. The then 32-year-old was found guilty of treason and violation of official secrets.
Between 2008 and 2014, the trained office clerk passed over 200 BND documents, some of which were top secret or explosive, to the CIA, raising at least $80,000. He made a confession in court. The motives he gave were boredom, frustration and not being challenged in his work. Among the documents passed on was a database containing code and real names of German agents abroad. The man is said to have endangered the life of a BND source abroad. In 2014, he had also offered himself to the Russian secret service by e-mail. (zis/SDA)