A Bundeswehr soldier is said to have offered Russia information in 2023. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office has now brought charges against him for acting as a secret service agent. This is not the first case of suspected espionage for Russia.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office has brought charges against a professional soldier in the Bundeswehr. He is sufficiently suspected of having worked for a foreign secret service and of having violated official secrecy. Thomas H. was arrested in August 2023 and has been in custody since then. Until then, he was employed at the Federal Office for Equipment, Information Technology and Use of the Bundeswehr in Koblenz.
According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, starting in May 2023, he contacted the Russian Consulate General in Bonn and the Russian Embassy in Berlin several times to offer cooperation. In one of the cases, he is said to have passed on information to a Russian secret service, which he is said to have obtained during his professional activities. The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court will decide whether to admit the charges.
Suspended sentences because of Agent activity
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office has already brought several charges of acting as secret service agents for Russia. In November 2022, the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court sentenced a Bundeswehr reserve officer to a sentence of one year and nine months probation.
He had maintained contact with Russian defense attaches at the embassy in Berlin for a long period of time. In the court case, a Bundeswehr officer testified as a witness: In NATO it is assumed that Russian defense attachés are connected to the GRU military intelligence service.
A man from Potsdam was also sentenced to a suspended sentence for acting as a secret service agent because he is said to have sent a CD with plans of Bundestag properties by post to the Russian embassy in Berlin. The letter was intercepted before it reached the embassy.
Accused of aggravated treason
The case of BND agent Carsten L. and his accomplice Arthur E., who are accused before the Berlin Court of Appeal, is more serious. The federal prosecutor’s office accuses them of serious treason in two cases. This can result in long prison sentences.
Last week, BND President Bruno Kahl testified about the consequences the treason case had for the BND and the Federal Republic. In a public part of the hearing, he spoke of “immense damage” to Germany’s reputation and to trust in the German foreign intelligence service. The court proceedings are initially scheduled until the summer.