Arne Schönbohm is now President of the Federal Academy for Public Administration.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin No disciplinary proceedings will be opened against the former head of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Arne Schönbohm. As the “Business Insider” portal reported on Friday, Nancy Faeser’s (SPD) Ministry of the Interior has informed Schönbohm’s lawyers that the preliminary investigations have yielded no indications for the initiation of proceedings. A ministry spokeswoman only said on request that her house could “basically not comment on personal details”.
Faeser dismissed Schönbohm as BSI President in November after the ZDF satirist Jan Böhmermann accused him of being too close to a cyber club with alleged contacts to Russian secret services. Schönbohm fought back and is now President of the Federal Academy for Public Administration.
Ministry circles have now said that the decision at the time to change the BSI leadership was due to a lack of trust: in Schönbohm’s leadership and in his ability to set up the BSI as a central cyber security authority in particularly challenging times. Faeser has therefore appointed the internationally experienced cyber security expert Claudia Plattner to the head of the BSI, who will take up her post shortly.
From the opposition Union, Faeser was accused of reacting to the Böhmermann allegations without examining them. “Minister Faeser damaged the reputation of Arne Schönbohm and the BSI as a security authority without reason,” said Nadine Schön (CDU), deputy parliamentary group leader. The digital political group spokesman Reinhard Brandl (CSU) said: “We expect that Ms. Faeser will also publicly rehabilitate Mr. Schönbohm after her admission that there is nothing against Mr. Schönbohm.”
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