The arrest took place in the West German city of Koblenz on the orders of a federal court judge, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
The suspect, of German nationality, is an employee of the Federal Agency for Equipment and Information Technology of the German Army, based in Koblenz, which depends on the Ministry of Defense.
The police have conducted searches in the residence and workplace of the suspect, the Public Prosecutor said, quoted by the Spanish agency EFE.
“From May 2023 [o suspeito] has on its own initiative several times addressed the Russian consulate general in Bonn and the Russian embassy in Berlin and offered their cooperation, “said the Public Prosecution Service.
“On one occasion, he passed on information obtained in the course of his professional activity, with the aim of passing it on to a Russian secret service,” he added.
The investigation was carried out in cooperation with the German military intelligence services and the internal secret service, the Agency for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV, for the German acronym).
The detainee appeared today before the investigating judge, who announced the provisional detention.
In December 2022, a department head of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) was arrested in Berlin on charges of high treason for passing information classified as state secret to the Russian secret services.
The case is considered one of the biggest espionage scandals in recent German history.
Source: DN
