Here are the latest scoop on the pro-Russia espionage case in German intelligence
Arthur E, the man accused of spying for Russia in Germany, has admitted handing over documents to Russia's secret services. All Spiegel's revelations in the article by Pierluigi Mennitti from Berlin
New details emerge on the espionage case that is jolting the BND, the German security service. Arthur E., the man arrested more than a week ago at Munich airport from the United States and suspected of being the accomplice of the BND official who was in turn arrested shortly before Christmas, has now admitted that he had traveled to Moscow at least twice to hand over secret documents of the BND to employees of the Russian secret service FSB. The conspiratorial meetings in a Moscow restaurant took place in October and November 2022.
The weekly Der Spiegel reports it exclusively, which cites its own research while keeping its sources covered.
“CARSTEN L.” AND “ARTHUR E.”
At the moment the main figure remains that of the first arrested, Carsten L., responsible for the security check of the German agents, the man who passed all the security screenings of the employees and candidates of the BND. He allegedly stole the documents from the German service archives which were then sent to Arthur E. and brought by them to Moscow, into the hands of enemy intelligence.
But in the investigations, the character of the man who until now was considered an accomplice and who, according to what has so far been leaked, is a German citizen but not an employee of the BND, is gaining more and more profile. However, like Carsten L., he was a soldier in the Bundeswehr: as Der Spiegel reports, the man enlisted as a contract soldier in 2009 and was trained as an IT specialist. In 2015 he then left the Bundeswehr at his own request.
THE NEWS ON THE ESPIONAGE CASE
Arthur E. also confessed to the investigators who are questioning him that at the second meeting in Moscow, FSB (formerly KGB) agents handed him an envelope containing money in exchange for secret documents stolen by the German security service.
From the indiscretions of the Hamburg weekly, it is now also known that Arthur E. had been arrested and previously interrogated in the United States by FBI investigators, who had confiscated his cell phones, laptop and hard drive. On the other hand, the German judicial authorities had issued a statement the day after his arrest confirming that the investigation had been conducted in close collaboration with the BND and with the support of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). And since the first arrest, that of the official in December, had taken place following a tip from a friendly security service, it seems more than probable that the first to track down the nest of moles inside the BND were the American 007s.
THE MATERIAL DELIVERED TO RUSSIA
Also according to information from Der Spiegel , the material delivered by the two arrested in Moscow included printed screenshots of secret tables and data on the number of Russian casualties in Ukraine, which the BND had evidently intercepted as part of covert operations. The investigators' fears also concern the fact that, with the stolen documents, the Russian secret services may have been able to draw conclusions about the BND's espionage methods.
Asked to confirm the weekly's leaks, defense attorneys for Arthur E. and Carsten L. declined to comment on the new allegations. The BND and the federal prosecutor also declined to comment on the new details of the espionage case with reporters. The two are accused of treason in federal court.
According to the German penal code, in particularly serious cases, treason can be punished with a prison sentence ranging from five years to even life imprisonment. This is the case, for example, if the offender has abused a position of responsibility which places him under a special obligation to protect state secrets.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/caso-spionaggio-servizio-sicurezza-germania/ on Thu, 02 Feb 2023 06:32:58 +0000.