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BND: Unmasked spy could have leaked situation reports on Ukraine

2022-12-26T14:01:37.088Z


New twist in the espionage case of the German foreign secret service? The suspected Russian double agent Carsten L. may have been blackmailed, according to a report by NDR and WDR.


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The BND headquarters in Berlin

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AXEL SCHMIDT / REUTERS

According to a report by NDR and WDR, the suspected BND double agent unmasked last week could have passed on secret information about the situation in Ukraine to Russia.

Citing information from security circles, it is said that the officer may have been blackmailed.

The Federal Public Prosecutor or the foreign intelligence service BND therefore did not want to comment on this and only referred to their press releases from last Thursday.

The BND employee Carsten L. was exposed by the Federal Intelligence Service itself and, according to the authorities, was arrested last Wednesday on the instructions of the federal prosecutor.

He is accused of having passed on highly sensitive state secrets to a Russian secret service.

On Thursday, the officer was brought before the investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, and remand detention was ordered.

In addition to the suspect's apartment, offices at two BND locations were also searched.

Scholz in the picture for weeks

According to BND President Bruno Kahl, his agency had learned of a "possible case of treason in its own ranks" "as part of its intelligence work."

Extensive internal investigations confirmed the suspicion, so that the BND immediately called in the Attorney General.

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

For this reason, the BND is currently unable to disclose any further details on the case.

Russia could use every detail “in its intention to harm Germany”.

According to SPIEGEL information, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) was informed several weeks ago that the BND was suspected of espionage.

Justice Minister Marco Buschmann recently emphasized the importance of the case.

"If the suspicion is confirmed, an important blow against Russian espionage has been struck here," wrote the FDP politician on Twitter.

"It shows how vigilant we must be."

Probably one of the biggest espionage cases at the BND

The accused is said to have transmitted information that he obtained in the course of his work to a Russian intelligence service this year.

The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe announced that the content was a state secret within the meaning of the Criminal Code.

According to the Criminal Code, state secrets are “facts, objects or knowledge that are only accessible to a limited group of people and must be kept secret from a foreign power in order to avert the risk of serious damage to the external security of the Federal Republic of Germany”.

The case of L. could be one of the biggest espionage cases in the history of the Federal Intelligence Service.

What is probably the most serious case of espionage in the BND's recent past was decades ago: in the early 1970s, the GDR's foreign intelligence service managed to smuggle its agent Gabriele Gast into the agency.

There she made it in the Soviet Union department to government director.

Gast was only exposed after the fall of communism in 1990. A court sentenced her to almost seven years in prison.

svs/AFP

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-12-26

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