The German foreign secret service has its headquarters in Berlin.
(Photo: imago images/Future Image)
Berlin The Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has uncovered an employee in its own ranks who is said to have spied for Russia. The man was arrested by officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) on Wednesday morning, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office announced on Thursday.
The BND employee is now in custody after being brought before the magistrate. He is accused of treason. If convicted, he faces a sentence of several years in prison.
The arrest is particularly sensitive given the tensions with Russia. Since the attack on Ukraine, Moscow has significantly intensified its agent activities in Germany and other western countries.
The authorities are still silent on the question of what information the BND employee passed on to Russia. The content was a state secret, it said. The information is said to have been transmitted to a Russian intelligence service this year.
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In this context, the suspect’s apartment and workplace as well as another person were searched – as well as two BND properties.
Contact persons remain in the dark so far
The secret service discovered the alleged mole themselves. As part of the intelligence work, they learned of a suspected case in their own ranks and then initiated internal investigations, said BND President Bruno Kahl. “When these confirmed the suspicion, the Attorney General was immediately involved.” In the case of treason, he usually takes over the investigation.
Kahl emphasized that the BND would work closely with the investigative authorities to thoroughly investigate the case. However, he could not comment on the details. “Restraint and discretion are very important in this particular case,” said the BND chief. With Russia we are dealing with an actor whose unscrupulousness and willingness to use violence is to be expected.
So far, the arrest is the only one in this espionage case, so far the contact persons on the Russian side remain in the dark. In the course of the arrest, premises in apartments and two premises of the BND were searched.
The BND and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution have been anticipating increased espionage activity by the Russians since the Ukraine war. Right at the beginning of the raid, Germany therefore expelled a few dozen agents who were employed at the Russian embassy. According to earlier information from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, there are still some agents on German soil who have not yet been discovered.
A double agent at the BND was last busted in 2014. Two years later, the man was sentenced to eight years in prison by the Munich Higher Regional Court for years of espionage, primarily for the US secret service CIA. The then 32-year-old was found guilty of treason and breach of official secrets.
Between 2008 and 2014, the trained office clerk passed on more than 200 BND documents, some of which were top secret or explosive, to the CIA and collected at least 80,000 euros for them. He made a confession in court. The motives he gave were boredom, frustration and not being challenged at his job.
Among the documents passed on was a database with 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 email.
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