Berlin Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) has dismissed the President of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Arne Schönbohm. This was announced by a spokesman for her ministry on Tuesday in Berlin – the “Spiegel” had first reported.
Schönbohm was criticized for a possible lack of distance to Russian secret service circles via the controversial association “Cyber Security Council Germany”. Schönbohm himself co-founded and managed the Verien ten years ago.
Schönbohm’s connection to the controversial club had previously been discussed by Jan Böhmermann in the program “ZDF Magazin Royale”. The Ministry of the Interior then said that the allegations were taken “very seriously”. Furthermore: “We also follow these very comprehensively – in all their facets.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior justified Schönbohm’s dismissal by saying that the allegations against him had “sustainably damaged the public’s necessary trust in the neutrality and impartiality of the conduct of his duties as President of the most important German cyber security authority”. “This is all the more true in the current crisis situation with regard to Russian hybrid warfare.” The allegations in the room also impaired the minister’s “essential relationship of trust” in the administration.
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Irrespective of this, all allegations would be “thoroughly and vigorously examined and subjected to a detailed evaluation,” said the ministry spokesman. It is still unclear who will lead the BSI with its more than 1,500 employees in the future. The successor should be clarified quickly, it said in government circles.
With agency material.
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