An officer of the German counterintelligence service and his acquaintance have been charged with treason for allegedly passing confidential documents to Russia, prosecutors announced today.
Intelligence officer" Karsten L." he was arrested in Berlin on December 21 last year, and the second suspect, German businessman "Arthur E", was arrested at Munich airport on January 22 when he arrived from the US.
Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND) said at the time of the first arrest that it had brought prosecutors into the case immediately after an internal investigation confirmed suspicions of treason.
Federal prosecutors said today that in May 2021, Karsten L. met Artur E., who was in contact with a certain Russian businessman connected to the Russian FSB intelligence agency.
The three allegedly met in September 2022 and agreed to pass sensitive BND information to the FSB.
On two occasions, from mid-September to early October last year, Karsten L. obtained nine documents related to the German project of collecting technical intelligence data, which he printed or photographed from his computer screen, according to the prosecutor's statement.
Karsten L. then gave the material to Artur E, who photographed the files, took the digitized data to Moscow, printed it out and handed it over to the FSB in meetings with Russian officers.
In September 2022, an FSB officer gave Arthur E. a list of "questions of special interest" and Karsten L. obtained the answers, prosecutors said.
According to their statements, Karsten L. received at least 450.000 euros from the FSB, and Artur E. at least 400.000 euros in cash.
Artur E. received this money in Moscow in November 2022.
Karsten L. then arranged for Artur E, when he arrived in Germany, to be "smuggled" past German customs officials, allegedly for professional reasons, claim the prosecutors.
The two were charged in a court in Berlin with "jointly committing a particularly grave treason," prosecutors said, adding that the information passed to the FSB was a state secret.
Germany has become one of the leading providers of military and financial aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion of the country in February 2022.
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