Admin l Friday, January 27, 2023
KARLSRUHE – A second person has been detained as part of an investigation that led to the arrest in December of an employee of the German foreign intelligence service BND for spying for Russia.
Germany’s federal prosecutor general said in Karlsruhe on Thursday that the man is suspected of having taken the secret information the BND employee had intercepted to Russia and handed it over to an intelligence service there.
According to the report, the man – named under German privacy laws as Arthur E – was arrested on Sunday at Munich airport on his arrival from the US. He is a German citizen and is not a BND employee.
The BND employee identified as Carsten L was arrested in Berlin on December 21 on suspicion of treason. Germany’s prosecutor general says Arthur E is strongly suspected of complicity in treason.
The investigation was conducted in close cooperation with the BND and with the support of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The accused was brought before the investigating judge of the Federal Supreme Court on Monday and placed in pre-trial detention.
The BND employee who was arrested in December is alleged to have passed on information he obtained in the course of his work to Russia after the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year.
BND President Bruno Kahl said in December that the BND is working closely with the investigating authorities to thoroughly clarify the case.
He stressed then that Russia was an actor “whose unscrupulousness and willingness to use violence” the BND has to reckon with.
