German prosecutors have charged an officer of the country's military procurement agency with attempting to pass classified information to Russian intelligence, the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement on Tuesday, UNN reports citing Reuters.
Details
As noted, the German citizen, whom the prosecutor's office identified only as Thomas H., has been in custody since August last year.
He is accused of repeatedly contacting the Russian consulate in Bonn and the embassy in Berlin with a proposal for cooperation on his own initiative since May last year.
In particular, Thomas H. tried to pass on to Russian intelligence the information he had received during his work.
The man was reportedly arrested in Koblenz, where the procurement agency is located in western Germany, and his home and workplace were searched.
The nature of the information he tried to pass to Moscow is not reported.
Recall
On March 1, the editor-in-chief of the Russian propaganda outlet RT, Margarita Simonian, published a 38-minute audio recording of "high-ranking Bundeswehr officers" discussing the possibility of strikes with Taurus missiles. Later, the German Defense Ministry said that, according to the initial investigation, the reason for Russia's interception of the conversation between Bundeswehr officers about Taurus missiles was an "individual error.