German spy accused of transmitting state secrets to Russia arrested

The famous and controversial Federal Intelligence Service (BND, in its German acronym) – the foreign espionage department equivalent to the CIA in Germany – admitted this Thursday to having a traitor in its ranks by announcing that one of its agents was arrested on Wednesday by order of the Attorney General's Office.

This official is seriously suspected of committing a crime of treason against the State for having transmitted secret information to Russian espionage.

The German agent now in police custody, identified as Carsten L., appeared this Thursday before the investigating judge of the Federal Supreme Court.

Since then, he has been in pretrial detention, as announced by the Attorney General's Office.

Carsten L. is an employee of the Federal Intelligence Service who, this year, "presented information obtained in the course of his professional activity to a Russian intelligence service," the statement from the Prosecutor's Office specified.

The content of this information transmitted to Moscow "constitutes a State secret," continued the text, which reported two searches at the home and workplace of the detained agent.

The president of the Federal Intelligence Service, Bruno Kahl, has alluded to the case in statements collected by the weekly

Kahl confirmed that suspicions about a leak of state secrets, discovered thanks to the intelligence work of the BND, led to an internal investigation and the subsequent request to the Federal Prosecutor's Office to intervene.

The weekly describes the arrest as "one of the largest cases of espionage in the history of the secret services."

Neither the German foreign espionage service nor the Prosecutor's Office have offered more details.

“Moderation and discretion are very important in this specific case.

With Russia, we are dealing with an actor from the other side whose unscrupulousness and willingness to use violence we have to reckon with," the BND chief said.

“Every detail of the operation that is made public is an advantage for the adversary in his intention to harm Germany.

The success of the investigation depends on making it as little public as possible until the attorney general has concluded his investigation."

Already in October, Kahl and the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Thomas Haldenwang, warned the Bundestag's parliamentary control committee of the increase in spying activities by Russia.

For some time an alarming growth of such activities had been observed, Haldenwang then warned.

In April this year, the Russian services received a “big blow”, Haldenwang recalled, when the German government expelled 40 Kremlin spies discovered by the BfV.

"They were far from all," stressed this person in charge.

However, the fact that an agent of the German foreign intelligence service allegedly spied for Russia is a novelty.

In German security circles, this incident is perceived as serious.

The last time a BND employee was suspected of treason dates back to 2014.

On that occasion, a double agent of the BND, who was spying for the CIA, was discovered and two years later, sentenced to eight years in prison for treason and violation of official secrets by the Higher Regional Court in Munich.

Between 2008 and 2014, that

had handed over 200 BND documents to US intelligence, some of them top-secret.

For this he received about 80,000 euros.

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