After the raid on a KSK soldier, the charge was that the MAD agent had betrayed a secret

A MAD agent reportedly leaked secrets from a highly sensitive raid. The public prosecutor’s office in Cologne has now brought charges against him.

The Cologne public prosecutor has filed charges against an agent of the Federal Office for Military Counterintelligence (BAMAD). This was confirmed by a court spokesman at the Cologne district court on Thursday at the request of WDR and NDR. The allegation is delicate: The man is said to have passed on confidential information about the search to another KSK comrade on the day of an ongoing raid on a Bundeswehr soldier of the Special Forces Command (KSK). He is also said to have shown him confidential photos from the search.

series of scandals

The process is politically explosive because it is part of a series of criminal proceedings directed against soldiers from the Bundeswehr’s elite unit and employees of the Federal Office for Military Counterintelligence. The BAMAD is the Bundeswehr’s secret service, which is responsible for the security of the military and is intended to ward off threats directed against the Bundeswehr.

Missing ammo again and again

It’s not the first time MAD agents and KSK soldiers have been accused of being too close. At the barracks of the special forces command in Calw, Baden-Württemberg, investigators from the Federal Criminal Police Office had already been looking for suspected secret weapons depots that they had suspected there in autumn 2017.

The background was fears that KSK soldiers had prepared for a so-called “Day X” scenario. In chat groups, they described the barracks in Calw as a so-called “safe house”. Police investigators then moved to the barracks and searched for possible illegal ammunition depots – but did not find anything.

In this context, another MAD agent had already been on trial in Cologne in the past. At the time, the public prosecutor had accused him of having warned a KSK soldier of upcoming searches at the barracks in Calw. However, the allegations could not be substantiated, the man was acquitted.

Ammunition depots in the garden

Years later, in May 2020, investigators then moved to the Saxon place of residence of a KSK soldier – and there they found boxes of misappropriated ammunition and two kilograms of plastic explosives from Bundeswehr stocks that were buried in the garden. The man has since been convicted and left the Bundeswehr.

The BAMAD employee in Cologne, against whom charges have now been brought for the alleged “violation of official secrets”, was also involved in the findings of these searches. According to the indictment, the agent, who was entrusted with gathering information and evaluating it, among other things, is said to have shared details from the searches with an elite soldier he knew. He is also said to have taken photos and passed them on.

The district court in Cologne must now decide whether the charges will be admitted. The man’s attorney could not be reached for comment Thursday. The Federal Office for the Military Counterintelligence Service did not want to comment on the process “against the background of the current proceedings”. The MAD employee is presumed innocent until proven otherwise.

process of public interest

Beyond the question of criminal law in this individual case, a possible trial in Cologne could also further shed light on another complex: how close the connections were between MAD agents and KSK soldiers and to what extent the disappearance of large quantities of ammunition at the KSK was known and played a role .

Because just a few weeks before that raid in May 2020 in the garden of a KSK soldier, the then KSK commander in Calw had ordered an extensive ammunition collection campaign. Soldiers have been given the opportunity to return previously misappropriated ammunition without penalty and without having to fear negative consequences. The soldier from Saxony decided not to take part. That’s probably the only reason he got caught.

Proceedings are also underway against the KSK commander who has since been transferred. In February, the public prosecutor’s office in Tübingen brought charges against him. The public prosecutor accuses him of failure to cooperate in criminal proceedings. The investigations against the head of the Bundeswehr’s elite unit, who has since been transferred, were triggered, among other things, by reports from WDR and NDR been. Again, the court has yet to decide whether to allow the indictment.