The federal prosecutor’s office in Koblenz arrested a German on alleged espionage for Russia. According to the authority, he works for the Federal Office for Equipment, Information Technology and Use of the Bundeswehr.
An employee of the Federal Office for Equipment, Information Technology and Use of the Bundeswehr has been arrested in Koblenz. The federal prosecutor accuses him of acting as a secret service agent for Russia. The basis was an arrest warrant from the Federal Court of Justice dated July 27. The man is in custody.
The apartment and the workplace of the accused Thomas H. were searched, said the federal prosecutor. Accordingly, H. is said to have contacted the Russian embassy and the consulate general in Bonn several times since May of his own accord to offer cooperation. He had transmitted information from his professional environment to a Russian intelligence service. After SWR-The accused noticed information during the monitoring of Russian facilities by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
The Federal Criminal Police Office, which in this case is working together with the Federal Office for the Military Counterintelligence Service and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, is responsible for the investigation.
Buschmann thanks authorities
While the Ministry of Defense declined to comment, Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann thanked everyone involved in the arrest of the suspect in the short message service X (formerly Twitter). “Vigilance remains the order of the day,” wrote the FDP politician.
The Greens member of the Bundestag Konstantin von Notz was concerned about the allegations against Thomas H.: “The case shows once again how much Germany is in the focus of foreign intelligence services,” said the chairman of the parliamentary control committee of the “Spiegel”. “In particular, Russia, but also China, play a major and unpleasant role here. We need more attention to counterintelligence and the illegitimate influence of autocratic countries on our democracy in Germany and Europe.”
The CDU member of the Bundestag Henning Otte also interpreted the process as a warning signal. “The case shows that the authorities for the protection of the constitution and the military counter-intelligence service have to be wide awake,” Otte told the news magazine. At the same time, the deputy chairman of the Defense Committee called for clarification: “The government must explain to Parliament why this spy was only discovered so late.”
charge of treason
Only at the end of last year was a high-ranking employee of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) arrested for alleged treason. Carsten L. is also said to have passed on information from his professional activity, in this case to the Russian domestic secret service FSB. The federal prosecutor’s office accuses him of treason because it is said to have been state secrets.
There was a case of a reserve officer in the Bundeswehr environment last year. He was sentenced to probation for intelligence work. The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court found that Ralph G. had an “extremely pro-Russian attitude” and an urge “to make himself popular and important among Russian military personnel”.
In 2021, a man from Potsdam was given a suspended sentence for secret service activities for Russia. He had sent a CD with plans of Bundestag properties to a defense attachée at the Russian embassy in Berlin and, according to the Berlin Court of Appeal, had assumed that it would reach the Russian military intelligence service GRU through him.